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“Screwing things up is a virtue. Being correct is never the point. I have an almost fanatically correct assistant, and by the time she re-spells my words and corrects my punctuation, I can't read what I wrote. Being right can stop all the momentum of a very interesting idea.”  

– Robert Rauschenberg

Denver’s very own revolutionary drag queen and creative prodigy, Yvie Oddly, calls failure a “gift.” (RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars | Yvie Oddly Fails Her Way to Success (S7, E5) | Paramount+). This claim finds its antithesis in the years of conditioning we experience as endemic to the culture of competition that defines education, personal growth, and professional life in this country. Yvie and I are asking you to stop and reframe. Failure is possibility in its most refined form. And, while our responses to it might not be as singularly elegant, the lessons it offers alongside opportunities for growth, for genius, for revolutionary thinking are manifold–if you let them be. Dig into failure with curiosity:  

• How does failure benefit you? your process?  

• How does failure create opportunity?  

• Who do you need to be to learn from failure?  

• Who do you need to be to allow failure to give you confidence?  

• What does failure change?  

• What does failure allow you to do?  

As you consider these questions, spend some time reviewing the linked podcasts and articles below. These resources might support a shift in point of view, particularly if your relationship with failure is a complicated one. Take a chance on a wild idea—let failure be a good thing.  

Psychology Today:  

Better Up:   

TED:  

UFYB:  

I Have ADHD:  

CU Division of Student Affairs: Tips from a Senior: Dealing with Failure