MASTERY THROUGH FAILURE

A few days ago, a student of mine asked me who was my research teacher. I thought for a while, and the answer that came out of my mouth was "failure".

He further probed why I said failure was my research teacher. I was glad to tell him that a few years ago during my first master's degree program, I failed the research course as a university scholar who graduated with a first-class honours bachelor degree. My failure was not even a "narrow failure"; it was a 32 out of 100 kinds of failure for a masters course at my university.

Many of my colleagues were ready to go to any extent to protest my score. Many people called my failure a mistake. Many people wanted me to call for a script remark. Many people said the Professor hated me, and that is why he failed me amidst other excuses. I appreciated the sympathy of reasons received from my colleagues, but I rejected them. I owned the failure, and I braced up to write the exam again with my junior colleagues the next semester. 

It was during my preparation to rewrite the exam that I began to grasp research quickly and developed the interest. I wrote the exam again with my juniors, and many of them were surprised to see me in the exam hall.

The lessons here;

1. Appreciate the excuses people are making for your failure but be careful not to accept those excuses as your reality. 
2. There are no excuses for failure. 
3. To overcome your failure, you have to define it yourself. 
4. Failure is simply success on trial. You can succeed in something mastered through failure. 
5. Never see failure as the genetic inheritance of some set of people, anyone can fail.

He gives understanding to the simple.

Oluwaseun David ADEPOJU