In the old days, when you started class at the University, there was a sense of terror of not succeeding. The old adage of looking Left and then Right and saying that one of them will not be graduating in four years left you with a sense that you had to press on from day one.
Now the
Institute President states:
“We are very lucky to have you!”
I guess so. But why are the students very lucky to be there?
Then it states:
"MIT is a unique crucible, where you will be faced with challenges you
didn’t quite expect, at an important time of your life,” she said. “My
advice here is quite simple: Embrace failure! If you haven’t already,
you’ll soon realize that failures frequently, and I might say usually,
allow you to learn far more than your successes.” Failure, she said,
“lets you know that your knowledge lacked depth, or your understanding
was incomplete, or maybe your expectations were a little unrealistic.
Filling in those gaps adds to your knowledge base, and how you go about
recovering from those failures will teach you lifelong lessons.”
I would gather that this is not something you would espouse at the Med School! Yes, we make mistakes, and yes we learn from these mistakes. But in life, Failure is often not an option. Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance, a dictum my father embedded in my thinking from day one. Experiments fail, but in so doing one hopefully understands why.
But embracing failure should not be an option. You don't drive eighty miles per hour on black ice, failure there can be severe!
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