Failure Is a Good Thing. So Is Success.
In Jon Carroll's essay "Failure is a Good Thing," he discusses his belief that success is overrated and how he thinks our failures should be better appreciated. Carroll's belief is that one must live life without being afraid to fail because doing so gives us the power to take risks and do things that have never been done before. He believes our failures are how we learn to deal with life's problems, and the mistakes we make along the way give our successes credibility. On the other hand, he thinks success is boring and that "first time success is usually a fluke." I agree that our failures need to be appreciated more, but there's no reason why our success should be underappreciated as well. Carroll's essay emphasizes his belief that our failures should never go overlooked and that our failures should be seen as an excuse to let loose and take risks. I believe this as well because our failures are what help us learn many of life’s lessons. In his essay, he mentions an African phrase that describes a good cook as “she who has broke many pots.” He goes on to say that a person who has broken lots of pots has probably spent a lot of time in the kitchen, and with that said , probably knows a lot about cooking. I believe his assumption is absolutely correct. As soon as he mentioned that phrase, I could not help but think of myself. I have broken more pots, pans, and dishes and I have ruined more than just few meals. I constantly struggled with how long dishes needed to be cooked, so many of my meals along the way tended to be way overdone or extremely undercooked. For years I would second guess myself and pull things out of the oven too soon or let them sit on the stove for too long. After ruining meals for a while, I came to the realization that I had no business in the kitchen until I became sure of myself and stopped second guessing my skills. Now, I’m one of the best cooks I know. After failing enough times, you...