Moving Forward from Failure
Transcriber: Nguyễn Thị Thanh Ngọc 11CA3 - 13 -
Reviewer: David DeRuwe
In my hand is a metal washer;
it distributes the load
of a nut or a bolt.
During World War Two,
a device just like this one
stopped Nazi Germany.
More on that later.
The previous example
is one of success over surrender,
but not all stories share that same fate.
Failure is inevitable,
but it can be exceptional
if you learn from it.
In fact, Albert Einstein believed
that failure is success in progress.
Of course, this is often
much easier said than done.
This leads to my bigger question:
How might we move forward from failure?
To answer this, I will share
why, what and how
you can pivot over,
under or around any obstacle.
Why am I here?
15 years ago,
my then one-month-old son, Max,
stopped breathing during a feeding.
He turned gray, went limp
and looked lifeless.
I started CPR,
carefully pressing on his chest
while breathing into his mouth.
Pressing, breathing;
pressing, breathing;
pressing, breathing.
Time stopped.
Finally,
inhale, exhale;
inhale, exhale.
Max stared up at me curiously
with fully dilated pupils.
It was a fulfilling
but frightening experience.
It happened on my birthday,
but it was Max whose life I celebrated.
Unfortunately, the next six months
were a blur of hospitals and heartache.
Six weeks premature,
Max bravely battled
a barrage of accumulating ailments.
The following July,
my mentor and grandfather,
Papa, passed away.
A month after that, my older son, Jacob,
was diagnosed with autism.
I struggled keeping
my consulting business afloat
while drowning in medical debt.
A figurative fire of failure
consumed every aspect of my existence.
Each attempt to overcome
my obstacles was unsuccessful.
I continuously hit dead ends,
often getting close,
but not quite to a solution.
I was emotionally overwhelmed,
physically drained
and financially devastated.
I was abandoned by people
who I had once admired
and betrayed by others
who I had once trusted.
Eventually, my sons
grew stronger and more stable,
but I hadn’t yet found my footing.
I simply could not succeed
in the same setting
that had splintered me;
I needed to leave what I had
to discover what I had lost.
I unexpectedly found
an oil well of opportunity
in the United Arab Emirates.
And so in September 2014,
I took an 8000-mile
leap of faith to Dubai.
Two flights, and nearly 24 hours later,
I was on the other side of the world.
Exiting the airport upon my arrival,
I was overcome with heat
and hope.
My expat adventure
of self discovery and self recovery
was finally underway.
How can you move forward from failure?
Pinpointing a problem
and seeking a solution
are the first steps,
but identifying an innovative idea
is, alone, not enough to fix a flaw.
“It’s not about ideas;
it’s about making ideas happen,”
says Scott Belski.
Ideation is easy; implementation is hard.
However, a purposeful pivot
can prove powerful.
A pivot is an incremental or fundamental
shift in your strategy.
The precursor to pivoting
is facing feedback from a failure.
“Close but not quite”
was the feedback from my many failures,
and to realize the remedy,
I needed to pivot.
P - pause to perceive
the cause of my concern,
I - identify a strategy
to surmount my situation,
V - venture over, under
or around my obstacles,
O - observe and evaluate
the impact of my effort
T - transform my mindset,
to support my success.
My pivot was fundamental,
others are incremental,
but all are consequential.
Even this very event pivoted
in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Initially an in-person event,
it first pivoted a year later
into a fully online experience,
and now a couple months later,
it has pivoted again
into a hybrid of online,
recorded and in-person interaction.
What is the proof that this works?
Let’s return to the metal washer example.
The Supermarine Spitfire
was an iconic World War Two aircraft.
It rallied Britain’s resistance
against Nazi Germany’s attacks,
but despite its remarkable reputation,
it had one weakness:
its otherwise impressive
V12 Rolls-Royce Merlin engine.
Now, Merlins had traditional float
carburetors like automobile engines,
but negative G forces
when diving or flying inverted,
disrupted fuel flow to the engine.
This caused the aircraft
to lose power, cut out or stall,
all potentially mortal problems.
With direct fuel injection engines,
German aircraft
didn’t have this same issue,
and they effectively leveraged this key
advantage over the Spitfire’s weakness.
Winston Churchill said
that failure is not fatal;
it is the courage to continue that counts.
Enter Beatrice “Tilly” Shilling,
a scientist from the Royal
Aeronautical Establishment.
With the courage to continue
in the face of formidable failure,
she found a fix for the Spitfire in 1941.
Nicknamed “Miss Shilling’s Orifice,”
it was a half-inch metal disc
with a hole drilled through the center.
When placed in the fuel line,
it stopped fuel from floating up and away
from the piston chambers in the engine.
Shilling successfully pivoted
around the negative view problem,
giving Britain a fighting chance.
While it was a stopgap solution,
affected aircraft could be efficiently
fixed while still in the field.
Shilling’s innovation later
inspired a 1943 redesign
that permanently prevented the problem.
Both solutions fueled the fight
and ensured that the Spitfire
could move forward
from its earlier failure.
Earlier, I mentioned my frustration
getting close but not quite.
But I now know that closer but not quite
is really more accurate.
Each step forward or backwards that I took
incrementally taught me a life lesson.
Pivoting moved me forward faster
from my failures by forcing me
to identify who I was meant to be,
clarify how I was meant to live,
and verify what I was meant to do.
My overseas experience in Dubai
rejuvenated and reset me.
Like Miss Shilling’s orifice,
it opened a portal to possibilities.
It didn’t solve all of my problems,
but it put me on a positive path,
and it helped me realize
that I’m not broken, and I’m not alone.
Not only did I find myself,
but I also found my life partner, Sylvia.
Another pivot awaits me
as I return to the United States.
After moving forward from failure,
I must now move closer to my sons.
Being far from them
was the opportunity cost
of moving closer to me.
But I can now be better for them
because I became better for myself.
Mythologist, writer and lecturer
Joseph Campbell once explained
that to live the heroic life
is to live the individual adventure.
I welcome my next adventure,
and I invite you to do the same.
I will stumble, I will fall,
but in time I will accomplish wonders.
And so will you.