Failure doesn’t have to be fatal

Failure can become a weight or it can give you wings.

That is the message I hear every spring when I attend the Horatio Alger Awards Ceremony in Washington, D.C., where 10 new members are inducted annually. I was honored to be one of them in 2004.

During the short speeches given by new members to the audience, which includes more than 100 scholarship students, the message I hear over and over again is: Don’t be afraid to fail.

The Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans is a nonprofit organization based in Alexandria, Virginia, founded in 1947 to honor the achievements of outstanding Americans who have succeeded despite adversity and to emphasize the importance of higher education.

The association is named for Horatio Alger Jr., a 19th-century author of hundreds of stories in the ”rags-to-riches” genre, extolling the importance of perseverance and hard work.

The association gives its annual award to people who exemplify its ideals. It also grants scholarships, and is one of the largest providers of need-based scholarships in the United States. All scholarships are funded by the generosity of Horatio Alger members and friends.

Perhaps the most important lesson these young scholars learn is that failure is not fatal. They hear about pathways to success that include episodes of difficult times, the temptation to give up and the persistence to carry on. The members reinforce that failure is merely an opportunity to start over again.

Make your stumbling blocks your stepping stones.