Waka Waka: Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Learn To Love Failure

Wait, am I really advocating failure?

Well, not failure per se but learning from failure. I attended a conference, one of those "leadership" conferences that parades success story after success story, where I had the pleasure to talk with an undergraduate who had a story truly exceptional and different from those of the many speakers whom we had traveled to hear.

It was a story of failure.

During this man's tenure within the chapter, the group had been trying to get more alumni support (both time and for their scholarship fund) and failed three times prior to set up an alumni golf outing. During this man's freshman year, the chapter decided it was going to reach out and set up the tournament. Nobody planed and ultimately it was a foursome between the chapter president, the corresponding secretary, the chapter advisor, and the president of the house corporation. The second year, the chapter again committed to holding the event. This time, the chapter set up a committee and began planning at the beginning of the semester. However, by the time they reserved the course and set up a budget, the semester had almost expired. With only three weeks notice, few alumni were able to rearrange their schedules in time to make it. The chapter took a major financial hit and required their house corporation to bail them out. When I was talking with this undergraduate, the chapter had planned and budgeted the event the semester previous. He had come to this conference with the intent of inviting several high profile national alumni for an event that was almost two and a half months away. When we talked, he was excited at the prospect of starting a phone bank when he went back to campus.

How was it that he was excited to try an event that had failed three times previous? "Because," he told me, "with every year, we learned something new. We had many mis steps, but each time we tried something new. We didn't want to reinvent the wheel, but neither did we want to give up."

This is my central argument for this posting. Leadership, not the appearence thereof, is one tenth management skills, one tenth enthusiasm, and the rest is perseverance! If you fail, learn from your mistakes, then pick yourself up and try again. It's not about the instant win or the big pay off. Fraternity life, life in general, is a marathon not a sprint.

As Shakira sang for the world cup, "Pick yourself up and dust yourself off / [get] back in the saddle. You're on the frontline / Everyone's watching / You know it's serious / We're getting closer / This isnt over"

That, if you want to know, is the one trait that true leaders all share. The rest, as they say, are just details on the path of life.
Waka, Waka