Tajma Hall

"The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure."-Sven Goran Eriksson
“The only real failure in life is the failure to try.”
“There are no failures - just experiences and your reactions to them.” Tom Krause
        These are a few of my favorite failure quotes. The thing people have to remember about failure is first, not to fear it, second, view it as a learned lesson, and lastly, it makes you stronger in the end.

Bill Gates

Oprah

Marilyn Monroe

Failure is something that no one likes but unfortunately it happens.  Persistence is so important when overcoming failure. When you are persistent, you are willing to do whatever it takes to reach your goals. Persistence is this inner turbo power that keeps you moving in the direction of your goals and it gives you a bridge over failure. When you get knocked down, you are not a failure because of it, but allowing circumstances to keep you down it failure. No one is good at everything and it is very seldom that people are successful and reach their goals and dreams on the first try. For example, Henry Ford was not an instant success. His early business ventures failed and left him broke five times before he founded the Ford Motor Company. Bill Gates, currently the second richest person in the world with a net worth of 56 billion dollars dropped out of Harvard and failed at his first business and later went on to creating a global empire - Microsoft. Other well known names such as Oprah, Micheal Jordan, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, and the list goes on. All of these people and many more, did not reach their goals on the first try but what they all have in common is they had persistence and never gave up despite failure or fear of it. This concept is extremely important in life because I know I will not always be the best. I know plan A will not always be effective but what is important is having that Plan B and being prepared to use it at anytime to keep pushing myself.

        My most recent encounter with failure was my decision to enter the Miss Teen Illinois USA pageant, a preliminary competition to Miss Teen USA. Needless to say, it was a big deal and was the biggest, most prestigious competition I had ever been apart of. It was also my first ever swimsuit competition. I was nervous. I decided at the last minute that I wanted to enter so I took the next few months to prepare. I worked out, ate healthy, and did my best to raise the entry fee. In the end, I did not win. I did not even make top 15. I was discouraged but I knew it was my first time in this system. I made the choice to try again the next year. I got a personal trainer, I worked out every day and ate bird food for months. Just kidding, but I was on a strict diet that only allotted me to consume a minimal amount of calories a day. I got the best pageant coach in the industry. It was the first time I ever had a coach. I never needed one before but since this was a huge level of competition I felt it was needed now. I prepared for an entire year. When it was time for pageant weekend, I felt ready. I felt good and I just knew the results would be great. In the end, I did not win again! I'm not going to lie, it hurt so bad. After I had dedicated myself to something and knew I had improved from the first try, it hurt not to see the results I wanted. I did win the award for best evening gown, which was great but it was not what I wanted. I felt like a failure. Then I reminded myself that I worked my ass off and I realized I should be proud. Eventually I did not care about not winning. I proved to myself that I could work hard and achieve a goal. There were many small goals I set for myself to help me prepare and I had accomplished all of those to the fullest so not winning the actual pageant was no longer even important. I showed myself how strong and dedicated I was. A few months later I decided to enter the Miss Teen Illinois -World pageant, a prelim to Miss Teen World and also a big deal. I came into it with a different attitude than the first and I ended up winning. I did not allow my previous failures to keep me down and discouraged. I used it as empowerment and it worked.

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      Being nervous about new experiences and meeting new people is a natural part of life. To be honest, it is something you just have to get over.The first day of bridge for me was not a problem. I was not nervous or scared. I am never afraid of meeting new people. That is a part of life and it is healthy to meet different kinds of people. My advice to someone who is nervous or scared about things like that would be to just be yourself. Our nerves often cause us to act odd in situations like that so I would just be myself and remember I am here for a purpose. As long as I keep that focus, I will be successful.