From Birds to Dragons

By Mohammed Ajao

If success gives birth to innovation, then failure is innovation’s father.

My first time failing was drawing a dragon. As a child, I was always fascinated by the lizard-like beings. I would pick up a pencil, sketching away with a printed copy as a reference. (My vision was quite bad so I could never trace.) I yearned for my own illustration of a dragon for others to gawk at. For six hours, I focused on creating a masterpiece. My knuckles burned. I saw myself as Van Gogh in a child’s overalls. With dry eyes, I was ready to hurry to show my piece to my school the next day.

To my dismay, the drawing resembled more a disproportionate bird than a dragon to my classmates. The approval I was seeking was instead replaced with laughter and pitying statements. I was told not to draw any longer. For my classmates, my artistic skills had become an example of what not to be. My sullen expression remained on my face for the duration of the disparaging remarks and rejections from social circles my classmates made. But it vanished when I heard a classmate state that my drawing’s shadings were a dirty stain. I realized that the only way to discourage those statements was to surpass the low expectations placed on me. If I listened to my classmate’s words that day, I would lack a portfolio and a successful game design. Instead, I managed to continue training with daily motivation from my favorite comics, like Medabots.The comics I had were my mentors. The small hands I thought would amount to nothing held illustrations that were more valuable to me than gold. . My failure was the father to my creative talent.

The story seems mundane, but that is because succeeding through failure is about your mindset. Like many kids my age, I was easily influenced by what others told me- but by thinking on a first principle basis, I was able to identify my weaknesses and grow. A positive perspective on failure allowed me to thrive inside even negative environments. Thus, I resolved myself to set my own expectations if nobody else set them for me.

My resilience against complacency offered me a path of success in the long run. I was able to develop grit and a stronger will for many of my artistic projects. Although it may seem dull, the statement “Keep trying until you succeed” holds true. However, it only works if you are willing to learn from your failures rather than fear committing them again. Rather than trying your best abstain from failure, question what caused it.

Failure fathers success because you learn from it. Every time you fail, you are building a stronger foundation of knowledge. Your past mistakes will be the platform you stand on to prevent further ones. At some point, that platform will be so high that you would have to face new, diverse failures to climb even higher. Failing a lot simply means you have a lot to learn. As long as there’s a positive outlook, the only path you can take is greatness.

Don’t be afraid to fail.

Fail and fail harder until you succeed.

About the Author

Mohammed Ajao is a Student Curriculum Aide at All Star Code, and is a senior at Manhattan Center for Science and Math.

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