Daniel L. (Update)

March 15, 2024

Tulane University
Law, Literature, & Psychology

To whoever is reading this (student or parent), I ask, what do you think failure actually means? Most people think that failure means you simply could not accomplish what you set out to do. If you believe in this common notion of failure, I now ask, how do you think that affects your ability to make a decision? Do you fear failure? Do you cower or shy away from it? Does failure guide you?

Or do you embrace it?

While uncomfortable, these questions are absolutely fundamental to anyone who endeavors to succeed in any aspect of their lives. Furthermore, these questions are fundamental to understanding how you define your position in and navigation of the world.

Before I was a student of Christine’s, I never questioned my understanding of failure; all I knew was that I was absolutely afraid of it. I believed that failure was something that could only hurt people. But I was completely wrong. Only through working with Christine, I learned that failure is not just a limiting factor. It’s so much more. Failure can act as a useful guidepost to direct you towards success. It is absolutely necessary because it teaches us what not what we don’t know but what we must learn (a lesson in corollaries that changed my perception of everything I do).

Ultimately if you are a person who is willing to learn and grow and try again after continuously falling short, can you really say that you’ve ever failed?

This is the belief that I carry with me every minute of everyday. It’s the reason I have been able to take risks and actually succeed in things for the first time in my life, things that were at one time inconceivable and indomitable.

If you are a parent who wants their kid to truly succeed, it’s vital that they are given permission to fail and that they learn how to fail properly. And, if there’s anyone in the entire world to guide someone through this terrifying paradigm shift, it’s Christine.

As one of the most influential figures in all of human history once said, “I haven't failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that don't work.”