<p>Prompt:
Many successful adults recall a time in life when they were considered a failure at one
pursuit or another. Some of these people feel strongly that their previous failures taught them
valuable lessons and led to their later successes. Others maintain that they went on to achieve
success for entirely different reasons. In your opinion, can failure lead to success? Or is failure
simply its own experience? In your essay, take a position on this question. You may write
about either one of the two points of view given, or you may present a different point of
view on this question. Use specific reasons and examples to support your position.</p>
<p>Essay:
An individual's definition of "success" is subject to change with every individual I might ask. Who am I to say what is successful and what is not? A person's life goals can be obtained with no effort at all, and he might easily obtain this goal with minimal risks of failing; while another person will have to fail miserably on several occasions in order to obtain his goal. However one might see his successes and failures, I say that all failures are successes because failure to obtain one's goal can greatly impact his future chances of obtaining his goal positively.</p>
<p>We do not start off walking when we are born. We crawl, then we become upright and stumble, and then we master walking. Depending on the person's goal in life, it might take several stumbles to obtain the goal. An actor might audition for 100 shows and only get a small part in a low-budget movie. However, if he auditions for 10,000 shows then he has a higher probability of obtaining a better part. And even if he were to fail 90% of the 10,000 times he auditioned, he would still have gotten a higher chance to land a better role than if he had failed 90% of his 100 auditions.</p>
<p>But what does this have to do with success? Well, because the more the actor fails in his audition, the more he can refine his skills to become a better actor. The actor would have vastly improved through the 9,000 failures he experienced if he auditioned for the 10,000 parts. Even if he lands a role he doesn't want, it is still an opportunity to improve himself through that role.</p>
<p>The actor might vastly improve through his failures, but again, who am I to say he will become successful if everyone's definition of successful is different? It does not matter what the person's definition of successful is, failure is results and results improve the individual's skills and helps insight on what he/she needs to do to make sure the next try is a success. Whether or not the person thinks he/she has failed, failure helps achieve success.</p>
<p>Failure is the prerequisite for improving. Even if the person fails a multitude of times, each failure points out something that needs improvement. Whether or not the person thinks he/she is obtaining his goal is totally irrelevant to whether or not he/she is actually becoming successful. Each failure is a success, just as each baby step and stumble is a step and a stumble closer to walking.</p>