The theme for the event was 'Gandhi and Innovation' - fittingly so as we were in the hometown of Mahatma Ghadhi as well as starting the summit on his 141st birthday.
I've talked about the Global Shapers Community before when I returned from the Annual Curators Meeting that took place this August in Geneva, Switzerland, but who are the Global Shapers and the Global Shaper Community (GSC), you may ask? You can explore the various Hubs, Shapers, Projects etc here but simply put - The Global Shapers Community is an initiative of the World Economic Forum (WEF). We are a network of city-based hubs developed and led by young people who are exceptional in their potential, their achievements and their drive to make a contribution to their communities.
Every-time I meet these incredible individuals I learn something new to share. This time - I learned we need to celebrate failure as they are the seeds we sow to grow. This was sparked by the Chandigarh Hub who gave us all packets with seeds which we were to plant to remind us of this very fact. They then asked us to share our failures using the tag '#IFailed' to help create this culture of celebrating our failures. This has then led to a cycle of us sharing our failures and what they taught us on online forums, then then nominating others to do the same.
So here are my three biggest failures and what I learned from them!1. The Failure: In school, English was always one of my better subjects and I did well with ease. This resulted in me taking my aptitude for granted and never actually working, thus one year I ended up with a lower grade than I should have, losing the class prize when I should have got it had I just worked a little.
The Lesson: Just because I have a natural aptitude for something, doesn't mean you don't have to work at it - success in something is 10% talent and 90% hard work. You will lose things you deserve if you don't put in the work.
2. The Failure: Not giving myself credit and allowance for being a person who had something to offer, thus allowing 'friends' to take me for granted and walk all over me, thus causing myself much distress and unhappiness.
The Lesson: I have value as a person, I bring something to every relationship in my life, and if someone wants me in their life I deserve respect and care from them. I learned that those who truly are your friends accept you as you are, and love you for who you are.
3. The Failure: Passing only one single subject in my first year of university in Sydney, purely because I never handed in assignment and in some cases didn't sit the exam.
The Lesson: I learned that there are very real consequences for selfish laziness. That YOU need to put in the work to reap the benefits and if you don't do what you should be doing, the consequences will be dire. I learned I need to be focused and I am capable of completely falling off the road.
I am nominating Nirmeet Kacheri, Aditi Gupta, Amod Rajbhandari, Anushka Wijesinha and Andrea Pérez Homar to share with us their failures with #IFailed. Let us all start creating a culture where we celebrate our failures, for it is through them that we truly learn and grow!!
