Why We Should Fail More Often

Everyone has a plan after achieving success, but if you fail by mistake, then how you need to deal with failure... no one talks about that

This is actually a quote from an Indian movie called Chhichhore. It's an incredible film that I reccommend to people even if you don't know the language. Don't let that stop you! I won't spoil the film but the moral or life lesson you learn along the way refers to failure - more specifically, dealing with failure and how it is just as critical as winning in life.

This particular quote resonated with me a lot. It's spoken by the lead character, a parent who has come to the realisation that throughout life parents often tell their children to 'get good grades and you will get into a good university' or 'get in to a good university and you will get an excellent job'. But this is a never ending cycle. If we succeed in life we are usually rewarded in some way by our families or friends or simply in society but that doesn't happen if you fail and more importantly, it doesn't even happen until the moment you succeed either. We all face criticism or negativity at some point too.

My Journey

Architecture is such a stressful career, course and industry. We often face many setbacks, whether it's in education or in practice. Whilst applying for university, I was often told that I probably wouldn't be able to get in and I should consider doing a foundation course instead. There's no harm in doing a foundation course - don't get me wrong, but it wasn't the path I had envisioned for myself and I was confident that I would be able to achieve more at university.

Looking back, I believe it was due to the lack of knowledge around the subject from myself and my teachers. I understood my grades weren't excellent, but I didn't let it stop me. I received 4 offers out of the 5 universities I applied to and successfully completed my degree with a 2:1. I think that's a pretty great achievement. But if I had failed at any point, it would have caused distress for my family, for myself and I would have been stuck and confused as to what to do next.

The funny thing is, even after graduating, there was still this lingering sense of 'failure' that overclouded me due to not finding a suitable Part 1 job immediately after I graduated. I saw many of my peers going on to work at some amazing places and I was still applying, interviewing and getting rejected. A year on, and I'm actually glad things worked out the way they did. I created a wonderful architecture community with my blog :scale and it has opened up more than a handful of opportunities for me in the industry. To top it off, I'm now working in a practice where I feel like a core part of the team rather than just doing repetititive or irrelevant work.

Dealing with failure is tricky, but we need to be doing more of it don't you agree? If we can have plans to treat ourselves after an exam or celebrate an achievement, we need to understand that even if we fail, we have tried our best and that's all one can do. As cringe as it is, failure is the way forward and without failing at something you can't know how to succeed. How we get back up and continue is up to us as individuals.

P.S. The ending of the movie is brilliant, unexpected and totally eye-opening, well worth watching and taking in.