Quote: Content With Failure?
Sep 26th, 2007 by jeremy
“My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.”
– Abraham Lincoln
We all fail at various things on a regular basis; the question is what we do about it. The other day while filming a pee wee football game, our quarterback made a mistake and received a little “feedback” from the coach on it. Being that he was only 8 years old, he took it kinda hard.
After the other coaches had sought to bolster him up a bit, I called him over. My message was simple, hey, we all mess up, but the best part of football is that you have a whole new series coming up to react in a great way and make everyone forget all about your previous mistake. That seemed to resonate with him as he gave a little smile and nodded.
The next series he ran only two plays, one to the right for a short gain, the second to the left for a touchdown. I don’t hear anyone talking about the mistake, just that great run for a score. Hopefully he remembers that little life lesson, I know I did.
Well good for you Jeremy! Since this is a positive web site I will not say too much on how I feel about kids as young as 8 being on a Pee Wee Football league and getting “feedback” from a coach like that. A young mind of 8 can’t even begin to separate the differences between the play being a failure vs. HIM being a failure.
I can understand your sentiment Ali, though hopefully I didn’t portray that in a wrong light. Actually the coach is superb and his feedback was right in line with what the kid needed, he just took it as an eight year old would of course. In fact the coach followed up later with great personal time with the player to reinforce the learning experience and help the kind understand the life lesson out of the situation. I am continually amazed at how much the kids are gaining from this football experience that applies in a much grander scope.
So good to hear that!