Failure: The Stepping Stone to Success

I took a seat next to one of my fellow classmates and prepared myself for an uninteresting 75 minutes. For 75 minutes an author known as Teresa Toten would be talking to my classmates and I on what it was like to be a published author. Despite the excitement of some of my fellow classmates, I was lacking enthusiasm and was plotting a way to subtly doze off without being noticed by the watchful eyes of a certain individual. To my avail, my plan was unsuccessful and in result I decided to make an effort and give Teresa Toten my undivided attention.

I must say I’m glad that my plan failed because I wouldn’t have been able to hear the wise and encouraging things Teresa Toten had to share. Teresa Toten made it very clear in firm but gentle way that in life we will fail. Not a little but a lot. She also made it clear to us that we shouldn’t allow our failures to drag us down deeper into a ditch but rather to learn from our failures and fix them and climb out of that ditch and keep on moving forward to success. I admired how Teresa Toten used experiences from her mother’s childhood and her own childhood that influenced her work.

Teresa Toten was quite a captivating speaker. She was very well spoken, and the way she put her words together kept me interested in what she had to say. I admired how she described to us the hardships and obstacles she had to face throughout her life and now successful career.

However I didn’t quite comprehend how she explained her books as failures because they didn’t meet up to her expectations. In my opinion, the fact that Teresa Toten books were published I view that more as an accomplishment rather than a failure. However to each her own, because we all have our own definitions of success and failure.

After hearing Teresa Toten speak, I came to the conclusion that I, myself would never dedicate my life to becoming a published author. I would write stories for my own amusement, and if they were to become published, then power to me.