What if youve never failed?

This might sound crazy, but maybe you should go try something now and fail at it. Have you ever qualified for a national athletic competition? Pick a sport and start training.

Thanks Cheetarah. I was actually just reading your blog earlier, you write very well, so I am sure your essays were a strength in your apps. Congrats on all the success.

There is more then one "this question doesnt apply to my life question" out there for me, but I guess thats why I am looking into it now to do some self assessing. I will start looking into more personal broken promises and failed expectations.

If you've never failed, then why are you going to business school?

sounds crazy..never failed? Einstein says if you have never failed, you've never tried new things.. go try something new.. you'll definitely fail

Yeah, it would be crazy to say Ive never failed. I try tons of new things that I fail at, just none of them make for very interesting b-school essays.

I guess I just dont take enough risks to go to a top B-school...

Thanks Dbalks and Cheetarah1980 for liking my response.

Thanks Poonamtandon, that is good food for thought and a good point to get into for self reflection. How did I end up as such a small part of such a big company?

You know, sometimes you feel like you are doing all the right things by working hard and networking, but somewhere you must be doing something wrong to still be the small cog. It really is a harsh reality, but a reality. I guess I was looking for a project or something at work, but I work at an insurance company and everything here is so risk averse that we take months to think about things with little action. So maybe I am looking for something project oriented, when I should be looking at how i got where I am..


Do you think I can use the failure essay to make a case for career change? Like saying that I wanted to work in I-banking and ended up settling in financial services? And that my proactive apporach to solving my failure was becoming a CFA charterholder, networking, and getting and MBA as part of the plan? Do you think the failure has to be completely resolved and made up for. I read in some admissions books that you should be able to state how you fixed the issues, and how you won't repeat the mistakes. If such a mistake is too easy to make up an I still havent done it, do I not qualify to go to a top B-school?

I realize I am overthinking, but just want to bounce ideas off of anyone who will listen and see my options when I inevitably face this question.

I agree, you are over thinking about your failure.

Q.1 Do you think I can use the failure essay to make a case for career change? Like saying that I wanted to work in I-banking and ended up settling in financial services? And that my proactive apporach to solving my failure was becoming a CFA charterholder, networking, and getting and MBA as part of the plan?

Ans. You can do that but it all depends how convincingly you present your case.

Q.2.Do you think the failure has to be completely resolved and made up for. I read in some admissions books that you should be able to state how you fixed the issues, and how you won't repeat the mistakes. If such a mistake is too easy to make up an I still havent done it, do I not qualify to go to a top B-school?

Ans. What matters the most is your take away from the setback / failure? Don't we learn from our experiences at every stage of our life ? Learning from our experiences is what makes us mature. And this maturity and resilience is what the Ad Com are looking for in their prospective candidates through such questions.
I hope it helped.
Thanks,
Poonam