(Guest post from Dalton Anderson)\u00a0 If I were to write a book on my life, the title will definitely be \u201cFailing Upwards\u201d. I define failing upwards as using the lessons life teaches you to improve your situation. For me, that\u2019s been a whole lot of failures that have taught me and prepared me for the next step or phase of my life. My life story isn\u2019t long yet, but I want to share the few \u201cfailures\u201d I\u2019ve experienced thus far.<\/p>\n
During my sophomore year of college, I started working for the charity my parents founded. It was awesome to work with them and push the mission of the charity, but it was apparent at least to me that I lacked any skills to add real value. I mean I hadn\u2019t even declared my major yet, and was cruising through all my general courses. I brought some mad custodial skills and a smile that said \u201cI\u2019m a winner,\u201d and that was the extent of my resume. It\u2019s a good thing my parents love me I guess, and that they were patient as I learned. I worked hard in school and tried to finish as fast as possible believing that my degree would magically bestow me with skills and qualify me for a great paying career. Sad to say that\u2019s genuinely what I believed\u2014live and learn right?<\/p>\n
After college I discovered that a wizard does not hand you a degree and grant you a powerful resume full of sought-after skills (which was a real bummer because how cool would that be?!), and so I got an internship working for an awesome PR company. When I started, I knew next to zilch about PR, but I was hungry to gain some knowledge and learned as much as I could. I was blessed with some great mentors and had a lot of opportunities to discover where I had some natural abilities. I also found some areas where I\u2019m not as skilled or gifted.<\/p>\n
I loved my internship and the skills I gained through that experience, but there were many-a-day that I felt pretty inadequate and like I was a massive failure. Agencies are nonstop, and the news waits for no one. I loved the fast pace and that every day brought on something new, but as a writer it required quick turnaround and being able to come up with a masterpiece on the fly. It\u2019s not a job where you can hit the pause button and ask everyone to hold on while you catch up. It was a mixture of learning on the fly, keeping organized, and pretending to not be drowning on a daily basis. I really did have a great time and loved my experience, but when the internship was over I came away recognizing that my skills were not to the level required to excel in an agency environment. I felt like a failure, and questioned if I had any<\/em> skills that qualified me for a job.<\/p>\n I sent my resume everywhere. Well that\u2019s a big exaggeration\u2014I sent it to a lot of places though. As the process goes, I didn\u2019t receive any calls the first few weeks. I started reaching out to people I know as well as my mom\u2019s network and that led to a couple of interviews, but nothing was landing. I became discouraged and thought maybe writing and storytelling weren\u2019t my strengths at all. Perhaps it would be better if I tried a different industry. I figured I would keep trying a little longer, and then start casting the resume out like Steph Curry in a 3 point contest (congrats to Joe Harris for winning this year\u2019s contest, I just figured the analogy would resonate better if I used Steph. No offense Joe).<\/p>\n I followed my mom\u2019s blog advice and applied to every position that I was remotely interested in. It didn\u2019t matter if I was qualified or not, if I thought I could be good at it, I was applying. It led to some hilarious applications, and I even applied for an executive position at a well-known publishing company, and my cover letter explained that while I was grossly under-qualified, I\u2019d be a risk they wouldn\u2019t regret. I then went on to explain how a focus on penguins could increase revenue and build brand awareness. You\u2019ll be surprised to hear I never heard back on that one. One application required me to write a short story on whatever I wanted, and I guess I had just listened to BBC radio because I was thinking about the Queen of England and her fleet of Corgis. I ended up writing a story about a royal pooch named Pongo, and I\u2019m convinced it will be a best-selling children\u2019s book one day.<\/p>\n None of those applications really went anywhere, but I discovered that I\u2019m passionate about writing when I\u2019m allowed to be creative and try new things. As fate would have it, I ended up applying at an amazing university that has a strong culture for doing things out of the box, and was lucky enough to get hired.<\/p>\n What I\u2019ve learned thus far, and will continue learning is that there are certain skills, areas, and conditions that I\u2019m very weak in, and there are others that I\u2019m pretty strong in. That\u2019s the human experience, and we\u2019re all on this crazy train. That\u2019s the obvious bit. But the reminder I want to leave for myself and anyone who needs it is that when you find an area that you\u2019re weak in, don\u2019t assume the weakness is generalized. It could be that by changing the conditions, you\u2019ll actually excel. And sometimes it\u2019s just a matter of continual practice and training before you change weaknesses into strengths. Either way, keep moving forward, and keep failing upwards!<\/p>\n