Today, I want to talk to you about the dirtiest word that any of you 9th graders know. It’s the “F” word.
FAILURE.
Failure that is so mortifying and so devastating that it makes you try to become invisible. It makes you want to hide your face, your soul, your being from everyone else because of the shame. Trust me, boys—if you haven’t already tasted that, you will.
One problem with failure: it can stay with you for a very long time.
Now, there are two types of failure you will experience in life. The first type comes from things you can control. That is the worst kind. But there is another form of failure that will be equally devastating to you, and that is the kind beyond your control.
Some things happen to you that at the time will make you feel like the world is coming to an end, but in actuality, there is a very good reason for it. You just can’t see it and don’t know it. When one door closes, another will open, but standing in that hallway can be hell. You just have to persevere.
Some of your greatest successes are going to be the children of failure.
