I fail; Therefore, I Succeed
Failure is pervasive. What makes failure pervasive? There are only two outcomes to a situation: failure or success. Failure is powerful. How is failure powerful? Failure changes people. The only discrepancy between failure destroying you or making you better is how you view it. If you are not afraid to fail, you will take more opportunities, learn from them, and improve yourself. Take it from my experience. I grew up in a decently affluent suburb. White kids from suburbia aren’t “supposed” to make rap music. However, I wasn’t afraid to engage in my passion because I did not fear failure. I jumped right in. I downloaded the music software needed to make instrumentals and taught myself how to use the program. It took me over a year just to have the ability to make a track. One of the hardest aspects of making the music I enjoy is being able to flip a sample. Flipping a sample is when you take a song (or literally any audio clip) and rearrange it, change its pitch, or change its speed to make it your own vision. Getting the timing down can be really tedious and challenging. My early beats were trash. I have no shame in admitting that. Over time, though, they started to sound good. Then they started sounding great. Then people started catching on. I stayed true to the inspirations that created my passions and studied them. The knowledge I gained through failure enabled me to create one of my best overall compositions. It all started when I heard the early 1900’s Big Band Jazz song Dead Man Blues in my summer music appreciation class. I felt something deep inside me the second the sound vibrations struck my ears. My eyes lit up and I instantly scribbled the name of the song down. Later that night, I got to work. I pitched down the sample, played it as I envisioned it, and used it as the canvas for the song. Next came the drums, the booming bass, and a few sprinkles of melodies here and there. Then the centerpiece of the creation: the lyrics. In sum, I finished this song in one night. Sometimes, it not only takes days, but months to complete a track. I took advantage of the experience of my past failures to craft a creation that has held the test of time, even two years into the existence of the song. I will say it again; failure can either destroy you or make you better. I chose to improve myself, and I still use failure as a teacher to this day. In the classroom, on the basketball court, and in the studio, I devote myself to being a student of the game. The smartest people in this world are those who seek to learn something new every day. Knowledge is power, and I use failure as an instrument to obtain that power. I eagerly accept new opportunities, especially if I haven’t done anything like them before. Life begins where your comfort zone ends. I fail; Therefore, I succeed.