Author Talk - How I Failed My Way to Success

Teens are all too familiar with the emphasis our society places on success as a measure of worth. With lives that revolve around exams and test results, it can be hard for teens to see beyond.

I was always a high achiever at school but made a series of epic mistakes in my quest to achieve my life-long dream of becoming a published writer. The more failures I made the more I panicked and felt worthless. But when I began to see my failures as learning opportunities, when I realized that there was always more than one way to achieve a dream, I saw each misstep as a step nonetheless, hopefully a step closer to the right direction each time.

With this talk I hope to reassure teens that failure is not the enemy – in fact, the ability to accept failure and to learn from it can be a strength.

Topics covered:

• My background
• All the mistakes I’ve made while trying to achieve my dream of becoming a published writer.
• What I learned from each of my mistakes.
• The importance of never giving up.
• The importance of seeing failure as a chance to learn and grow.
• Q&A time