The Lighter Side of: Failure

Almost every interview I have ever been a part of - whether it was for a job, for a gig, or a simple autobiographical blurb for a fundraising campaign - I hear the same question:

"What would you consider to be your biggest failure?"

This question can often be framed in a more cryptic manner, but the basic phrasing remains.
When have you failed?
What did you fail to accomplish?
How did you react?
What did you learn?

Of course we have all 'failed' in one way or another. Not making a team, not achieving the desired marks or grades, messing up an audition, screwing up a presentation, not getting a promotion, trying something new and not having it turn out as hoped.
Those situations are part of life, but I actually would not call them failures.

When we go out for a team or for a specific job or group, it is not always about being accepted into that one particular arena. More often than not, it is a level that we are attempting to achieve. A level of talent or expertise that would help us gain some recognition.

In my opinion, the only way you will ever fail is if you never try again.

Failing is an opportunity to recognize your faults and improve upon them. It is a challenge to learn more, improve your skills, try harder, work harder, change your perspective. These failures are sometimes accompanied by critiques and/or comments. Take these comments and apply them to your current level.

Here is some hard truth:
There will almost always be someone who is more talented than you are. There will almost always be someone who is ahead of you. And even if you do reach the very top - if you become the prima ballerina or the most note-worthy human being in your chosen field, that does not mean you have achieved perfection. I do not care how talented someone is, there is ALWAYS a way to improve one's skills.

So what should we strive for?
We strive for a personal best. Then an additional personal best. We keep striving until we are satisfied. We continue to learn, to adapt, to fail over and over again until we are confident and no longer failing.
For some activities, this satisfaction may come from being average. It may come with barely being able to accomplish something. For other interests, it may take an entire lifetime to feel that confidence.

You only fail if you give up.
But even more than that - failure is not a bad word. Human beings have limitations. We each have our own unique faults. Failure just means that you have gone out on a limb to try something new and did not quite succeed in the manner you were hoping. It means you put yourself out there - you risked something to gain something else, even if it is only the knowledge of your own personal limitations.
The Lighter Side of Failure is that you have a chance to improve and, maybe, even try again.

Feeling like you have failed means that there was, evidently, passion in what you were attempting. That, in my opinion, is the vital importance.
We try.
We passionately try.
We learn.
We keep trying.

Failure is not a bad word. Nor is it final... at least not in the majority of cases.
Failure is proof of courage.
Failure is an opportunity.
So hold on to your own personal failures, find special instances that you can take with you to future attempts and build your knowledge. Try again, or accept that one particular limitation, but do not stop taking certain risks because of one failure or another.