By Jacqueline Burrell
March 30, 2021
“Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
– Winston Churchill
First time away from home at college, retired Army Colonel Rodney McCants recalled how miserable he was at school. So, he took a semester off and worked in the mines. The work was dirty, sweaty, with long, desolate hours. During this time, he learned a valuable lesson: No matter how bad school seemed at first, things could always be worse.
McCants shared this and other life lessons with students during a recent professional development session on ‘Learning from Failure’ for the Page1 Foundation’s College Prep and Mentoring Academy (CPMA).
Joining in the discussion was his longtime colleague and friend, retired Army Colonel Forrest Smith, as well as retired Army General, George Bowman and business owner Antwayne Ford. They are all members of the Page1 Stakeholder Network.
Ford, an ordained minister, told the high school juniors and seniors that: “Knowledge is acquired through experience. But, sometimes, execution of that knowledge doesn’t always work out well. Mistakes happen. The question then becomes: how does one handle that mistake?”
His advice: Learn what you’ve done and why it failed; Accept responsibility; then, Do something about it.
“It’s better to fail forward, toward your goal,” said Ford, President & CEO of Enlightened, a leading Information Technology and Management Consulting firm, headquartered in Washington, DC.
“Make it easy for people to give you feedback,” said Foundation Co-Founder Kai Williams, who develops the curriculum for each month’s theme.
Page1’s CPMA program helps underserved high school students from across the country navigate the college admissions and scholarship processes. The charitable foundation provides each student with a dedicated mentor and offers professional development advice from a host of experts across various fields.
COL Smith, like COL McCants, commanded units within a battalion in Germany. “There were lots of mistakes to learn from,” he said, with the main one being: “…preparedness at all times.”
They credit their battalion commander and mentor (retired Colonel Jim Paige, a Foundation Co-Founder) for helping them learn from their failures.
The battalion’s mantra, ‘We Fight Tonight,’ was a constant reminder to always be ready.
These skills, they noted, apply to life in general. “Being on time means you’re late,” said COL Smith, who is now Chief of Staff for Joint Task Force North, the Department of Defense Counter-drug and Counter Transnational Criminal Organization Task Force, based at Fort Bliss, Texas. “Being early is being on time. And always take notes.”
“Have integrity,” added COL McCants, who works for the Raytheon Corporation in Huntsville, Alabama and is also an ordained minister. “What we say and what we do mean something.”
Renee Edwards, a special guest, joined the conversation. Edwards, who is District Director, 30th Congressional District of Texas, for Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, offered words of encouragement to everyone. “It’s ok to fail. But it’s not ok if you don’t get back up and try again,” she said.
Students asked how to stay focused and how to keep motivated?
General Bowman, who runs the Bowman Group, supporting homeless veterans, offered, “The easiest way to stay focused may be to visualize where you want to end and work backwards in time. … Do what’s necessary, what’s required.”
His motivation, he said, was to show that “I was better than anyone thought, because I was consistently underestimated. … You have to show that you’re willing to do, to lead from the front. Don’t be afraid to fail.”
Kevin Paige, Page1 Foundation Co-Founder, closed the session, challenging the students “Don’t be afraid to fail. Every time you fall down, get up and try again.”
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