Failure Leads to Success

How do we lead a generation of learners as they plan the steps to their future as professionals?

What steps can be modeled that teach flexibility and strategic planning?

"A career choice should be a personal decision, made after research, which is how I tell students to prepare," said my cohort Tamara at University of Phoenix.

That is the most sound advice that anyone can offer to young people as they share their lives. The biggest obstacle is that they neither possess the wisdom, nor the exposure to make a those choices
at a young age. The other hurdle is to understand that we must walk, fall down, and walk some more until we learn to run. Failure leads to success. Are they willing to learn from the bumps and bruises that life will initiate them with? One way that  they can get closer to making sound choices toward their future is by conducting interviews of people in professions that they are attracted to.

The other part of this decision is to honestly ask yourself why a particular profession looks interesting to you. Too often are the times that we make decisions because we have unrealistic expectations or fantasies about what a particular job will actually be like once you're living with it. Many people believe that becoming a physician, or an attorney, will create a happy a luxurious lifestyle. Why is this a perception of so many? The reality of these professions is very different than most people think. These professionals have dedicated their lives to their work. Many never "clock out" in their 24/7 lives as doctors and lawyers.When people think of doctors and lawyers they often think that they are the wealthiest professionals that we know of. Is this in fact a reality? Right now health care reforms have shaken up the entire industry. Insurance premiums and big business have the doctors hands tied. Many of them will be closing their doors in the near future if the proposed reforms in heath care actually kick in. I know that they could not have predicted this. Nor would they have dedicated 12 years of higher education and a decade's worth of student loans to pay back. It is impossible to know what the future holds.

When we stop to consider the why behind the actions we discover more clues as to whether or not a particular plan is a good plan. The only thing to try to really understand is what makes us who we are. Do you have the passion and the drive to sustain the hardest part of this job? For better, for worse, can you commit to this? That takes introspection, honesty, and clarity. Many teacher candidates make this error when they embark on their paths as a teachers. Rainbows and unicorns and the ideal classroom are dreams, not reality. Once the schooling and training have passed, and the realities of the classroom snap us into focus we need to ask ourselves, "Am I prepared for this?" We need to reinvent continually to stay ahead of the changes.


Teacher leaders need to guide the people that they inspire to be self-reflective and assertive when they plan their steps. When the whole system changes, which we know that it will, we need to be flexible and move with the changes not against them. Our students will have several careers as the world shapes into the next decades. The idea of having one job, or even one profession, is a myth. Vision, planning, and flexibility are the skills that will prepare our young ones best. Everyone needs to think of himself or herself as the leader of their own future, and take ownership of the ramifications of those decisions, too. If it doesn't fit, move along and reinvent until you find a path that does. Failure leads to success.