Goodwin on the Freedom to Fail

I truly believe that failure is important in order for a person to succeed. If there are no failures in life, there will be no motivation for success. To be honest, I experienced my first dose of failure when failed my premath test in college. It was a reminder that if I was going to be truly successful in college, I was going to actually have to be realistic and put actual effort in my work to get an education. This culture is afraid to fail because it would force people to recognize and appreciate what they have. Our culture is raising a generation of children who think that life is an entitlement and not something you should work for. I do believe that the limited freedom to fail could affect our society and government because it breeds incompetent officials and tyranical rulers.

I am concerned that if the freedom to fail is not allowed, there will be no new inventions of products and new ways of thinking. There will be no one to step up to the challenges of our governments who treat us wrong, no new artists who create art work, and no protests on the streets. So how do we stop this ever growing trend towards laziness and elitism? It's as simple as getting your children actively involved in their school projects and not having the parents do the assignments. It  is having a game in athletics where there is a clear winner and the loser shakes hands and learns to loose with humility, for both the winner and loser learn good sportsmanship. In the midist of trial and error when creating projects, it helps to know what your consumers really need. The freedom to fail also provides motivation for creativity and increases competncy for success. When we make these small changes, we can then have the absolute freedom to fail.