when I was in grade six I was vying for
the gold medal and the annual st. you
with Catholic school spelling bee in
these same halls I was up against my
good friend Danny and the word was femme
fatale
I knew this word I had studied it before
in my dog ear dictionary I remember
exactly that it meant sexy dangerous
lady in French well in my haste and I
guess overconfidence however I forgot to
spell it with a letter e at the end
needless to say I never quite forgot
that it perhaps is the most acute memory
that I have of failure one that remains
vivid under the day when you talk about
failure you often do so with much less
fervor and much less excitement then
it’s more marketed sibling success but
failure is not Babu failure is not a
fault to fail is actually to indulge to
the first attempt and learning without
which he wouldn’t be able to progress
even further when I graduated from st.
Jude I was over the moon to be accepted
into my dream school the Ateneo however
I had nothing to my name I the Merit
Scholar I was an even part of the
directors list which has thought 2% of
the examinees I had nothing but a
pitiful merit English class enrollment
under my name Lester decorated
classmates and friends got more got
farther and in my head yes hashtag first
world problems I felt like was a failure
I stare down so many silent questions
from relatives and friends whose eyes
seemed to bore into my soul asking so
what happened to you I thought you were
smart I felt like my alternative theory
that intellect and luck was finite was
finally coming true and that mind was
running out I started getting low grades
I got my first test and my biology long
test my mother and the audience would
remember me crying to her after taking
the other T on the ride home I was
thinking to myself I was such a small
fish in a big pond I wish I wish I could
just
in that time I felt like I just wasn’t
good enough that perhaps I never was
when people ask me where I graduated
from I would always say st. Jude but I
would be very careful not to talk about
my past achievements lest they judge me
for my current lack of them in the same
way we tend to keep quiet whenever we
have a job application coming up or a
competition in the works I kept quiet
because I let my fear of failure
rumi I’d like to ask the audience to and
build me for a moment show of hands
please who among you here want to
succeed who among you here want to fail
who among you here fear success and who
among you here fear failure ladies and
gentlemen this show of hands is already
a case in point when we talk about
failure we often talk about it with
muchness with a lot of negativity with a
lot of apprehension and a lot of anxiety
but we forget that failure is actually
good people ask me off what have you
failed that JC and it answered them a
lot
this is actually an a picture of a
post-it that’s been stuck to my bathroom
wall for the last five years I first put
it up there when I was objective failing
at my first job out of college but if
you think about it
failure is good because it grounds you
it motivates you to do better it reminds
you then that you’re not invincible it
doesn’t really matter how large your
definition of failure is or what how you
define it what matters is your reaction
to this lack of success Dee’s shirt from
it or do you embrace it do you run away
from it or do you let yourself be
enveloped by a thief step into the fire
of failure allowing yourself to be
forged into a better you it I guess I
haven’t failed at the magnitude that
people expect me to or perhaps hope I
would but I have failed quite often
enough to form this principle which just
guided me until today fear pointless
failure and fear easy success when I was
in the second semester of my fresh
freshman year and at the nail a really
smart classmate of mine asked me he’s
from Ateneo high a boy he asked me so
young what UPI did you get so out of 4
with 4 being the highest rather York UPI
or your quality point index and
Compass’s your worth as a human person
or at least as a student studying and
they acted even the overachievers in the
audience with know exactly what I mean I
was young I was naive i blithely and
even joyfully answered him with it
saying I got 3.16
about you for the record 3.16 is not
super horrible it’s between bb+ but for
my friend who got something close to
four he looked me up and down as if
seeming to assess my worthiness to be in
his presence and she just replied with a
deadpan voice ah 3.16 Kalam that
statement stirred so many feelings in me
that I didn’t know I had that spurred me
to do so much better than next semester
at drove me to get 3.7 3.0 3.9 all the
way until graduation
when it was between me and him for a
couple of awards and when we were up on
that stage and when you’re actually
having her photo taken together he
congratulated me and I turned to him and
seriously and profusely thanked him for
what he’s done the say he was surprised
as an understatement he didn’t even
remember that he had that encounter four
years ago but that’s what I mean by
having success or fearing easy success
because having success come easy doesn’t
do you any favors it doesn’t teach you
about resilience that muscle that you
need to work on in order to get stronger
at it it doesn’t eat you about hard work
it doesn’t teach you about that what got
you here will not be the same sets of
skills and abilities that will get you
to the next step and worse it teaches
you that life is a better process when
it’s not look around at all the people
who’ve had life throw them curveballs
wasn’t their motivation higher than the
average fear pointless failure and fear
easy success I have an admission to me
I’m actually a very frustrated writer I
can’t recall the number of times that
have passed a literary piece to the
publication’s in college only to never
really realize my dream of seeing my
name on print I it wasn’t until I saw
the first testament of my first book
that the publisher that I realized I had
failed because I didn’t give so much of
myself in it I recycled assignments that
were written for English class I passed
first Jaffe’s written in language
transportation
I never really took the time to hone my
writing cast even further
unlike the eight months that I spent
researching writing greeting editing
revising and rewriting this labor of
love of ours with my co-author in
Monteria which was by no means an easy
feat for two women who had too little
time on their hands as it is but even
moments of success are neither perfect
nor permanent this is the actual table
of contents that went out to print and
can you spot the knot it’s a bit small
but as a grammar nazi’ I take particular
pride and everything that I write or
everything that goes through me it makes
me cringe however every single time that
I realize her that I remember I
painstakingly went through every single
page subsequent to this table of
contents just to make sure that
formatting was perfect
grammar was correct punctuation and
spelling were at bar only failing to
undergo quality check on the one page
I’m pretty sure everyone who bought my
book would get two I got I spelled
classification with an extra I the point
is we will always make mistakes and we
will always make failures but the idea
is not to keep count of how many you
wrapped up in your life no matter how
long or short it is the idea is to make
them count every single time to remember
it and to not repeat it to make it work
for you instead of the other way around
Emma’s fan of code so allow me to share
with you a personal favorite of mine and
I think sir Odie has already alluded to
it earlier it’s your attitude not your
aptitude that determines your altitude
this was spoken by Zig Ziglar for the
longest time I just thought that this
was the proverbial battle between EQ and
IQ you know how how we placed such a
huge importance on technical skills over
E overpowering people skills but at the
end of the day it’s Feeny our soft
skills that went out at the end it
wasn’t until after five years in the
workforce that this adage
this maxim has taken on a completely new
meaning for me I don’t think I was
invited to speak before you here today
because I’m the greatest failure nor
success st. Jude Catholic school has
ever produced I do think I’m here to
tell you however that neither success
nor failure is an end state rather
they’re simply the catalysts are the
pivotal moments from which you must
always ask ourselves so what what now
how do I move on or how do I move
forward because the minute you start
resting on your laurels for the people
who are enjoying a bit of success at
this point in their lives
the minute you rest on your laurels you
allow your someone else to people behind
you and meet you if on the other hand
you feel like you have some improvements
to make and you realize or the second
that rather that you second-guess
yourself you don’t allow yourself that
responsibility and that chance to dust
yourself off and try again
I implore the youth of the day two
things forget your successes right away
but never ever forget your failures
undocumented unglamorous the staying
power of your failures far surpasses and
is far more potent than any other frame
certificate shiny medal or heavy trophy
that they bestow upon you as I always
tell my kids or the people the people in
privilege to mentor you’re only as good
as your last success but you’re already
always better than your last failure
when I was in grade six
I was vying for the gold medal in the
annual Spelling Bee and he’s very host I
was just about to spell the word femme
fatale but I forgot to spell it with a
letter e at the end I never quite forgot
that because I didn’t get to have my
name published on the Chinese yearbook
as how I would have wanted it to perhaps
because it was the most acute failure
that I remember perhaps more so because
I proposed idli made it into my first
yahoo email address very much active
until today
just so I never do forget thank you very
much
[Applause]
the gold medal and the annual st. you
with Catholic school spelling bee in
these same halls I was up against my
good friend Danny and the word was femme
fatale
I knew this word I had studied it before
in my dog ear dictionary I remember
exactly that it meant sexy dangerous
lady in French well in my haste and I
guess overconfidence however I forgot to
spell it with a letter e at the end
needless to say I never quite forgot
that it perhaps is the most acute memory
that I have of failure one that remains
vivid under the day when you talk about
failure you often do so with much less
fervor and much less excitement then
it’s more marketed sibling success but
failure is not Babu failure is not a
fault to fail is actually to indulge to
the first attempt and learning without
which he wouldn’t be able to progress
even further when I graduated from st.
Jude I was over the moon to be accepted
into my dream school the Ateneo however
I had nothing to my name I the Merit
Scholar I was an even part of the
directors list which has thought 2% of
the examinees I had nothing but a
pitiful merit English class enrollment
under my name Lester decorated
classmates and friends got more got
farther and in my head yes hashtag first
world problems I felt like was a failure
I stare down so many silent questions
from relatives and friends whose eyes
seemed to bore into my soul asking so
what happened to you I thought you were
smart I felt like my alternative theory
that intellect and luck was finite was
finally coming true and that mind was
running out I started getting low grades
I got my first test and my biology long
test my mother and the audience would
remember me crying to her after taking
the other T on the ride home I was
thinking to myself I was such a small
fish in a big pond I wish I wish I could
just
in that time I felt like I just wasn’t
good enough that perhaps I never was
when people ask me where I graduated
from I would always say st. Jude but I
would be very careful not to talk about
my past achievements lest they judge me
for my current lack of them in the same
way we tend to keep quiet whenever we
have a job application coming up or a
competition in the works I kept quiet
because I let my fear of failure
rumi I’d like to ask the audience to and
build me for a moment show of hands
please who among you here want to
succeed who among you here want to fail
who among you here fear success and who
among you here fear failure ladies and
gentlemen this show of hands is already
a case in point when we talk about
failure we often talk about it with
muchness with a lot of negativity with a
lot of apprehension and a lot of anxiety
but we forget that failure is actually
good people ask me off what have you
failed that JC and it answered them a
lot
this is actually an a picture of a
post-it that’s been stuck to my bathroom
wall for the last five years I first put
it up there when I was objective failing
at my first job out of college but if
you think about it
failure is good because it grounds you
it motivates you to do better it reminds
you then that you’re not invincible it
doesn’t really matter how large your
definition of failure is or what how you
define it what matters is your reaction
to this lack of success Dee’s shirt from
it or do you embrace it do you run away
from it or do you let yourself be
enveloped by a thief step into the fire
of failure allowing yourself to be
forged into a better you it I guess I
haven’t failed at the magnitude that
people expect me to or perhaps hope I
would but I have failed quite often
enough to form this principle which just
guided me until today fear pointless
failure and fear easy success when I was
in the second semester of my fresh
freshman year and at the nail a really
smart classmate of mine asked me he’s
from Ateneo high a boy he asked me so
young what UPI did you get so out of 4
with 4 being the highest rather York UPI
or your quality point index and
Compass’s your worth as a human person
or at least as a student studying and
they acted even the overachievers in the
audience with know exactly what I mean I
was young I was naive i blithely and
even joyfully answered him with it
saying I got 3.16
about you for the record 3.16 is not
super horrible it’s between bb+ but for
my friend who got something close to
four he looked me up and down as if
seeming to assess my worthiness to be in
his presence and she just replied with a
deadpan voice ah 3.16 Kalam that
statement stirred so many feelings in me
that I didn’t know I had that spurred me
to do so much better than next semester
at drove me to get 3.7 3.0 3.9 all the
way until graduation
when it was between me and him for a
couple of awards and when we were up on
that stage and when you’re actually
having her photo taken together he
congratulated me and I turned to him and
seriously and profusely thanked him for
what he’s done the say he was surprised
as an understatement he didn’t even
remember that he had that encounter four
years ago but that’s what I mean by
having success or fearing easy success
because having success come easy doesn’t
do you any favors it doesn’t teach you
about resilience that muscle that you
need to work on in order to get stronger
at it it doesn’t eat you about hard work
it doesn’t teach you about that what got
you here will not be the same sets of
skills and abilities that will get you
to the next step and worse it teaches
you that life is a better process when
it’s not look around at all the people
who’ve had life throw them curveballs
wasn’t their motivation higher than the
average fear pointless failure and fear
easy success I have an admission to me
I’m actually a very frustrated writer I
can’t recall the number of times that
have passed a literary piece to the
publication’s in college only to never
really realize my dream of seeing my
name on print I it wasn’t until I saw
the first testament of my first book
that the publisher that I realized I had
failed because I didn’t give so much of
myself in it I recycled assignments that
were written for English class I passed
first Jaffe’s written in language
transportation
I never really took the time to hone my
writing cast even further
unlike the eight months that I spent
researching writing greeting editing
revising and rewriting this labor of
love of ours with my co-author in
Monteria which was by no means an easy
feat for two women who had too little
time on their hands as it is but even
moments of success are neither perfect
nor permanent this is the actual table
of contents that went out to print and
can you spot the knot it’s a bit small
but as a grammar nazi’ I take particular
pride and everything that I write or
everything that goes through me it makes
me cringe however every single time that
I realize her that I remember I
painstakingly went through every single
page subsequent to this table of
contents just to make sure that
formatting was perfect
grammar was correct punctuation and
spelling were at bar only failing to
undergo quality check on the one page
I’m pretty sure everyone who bought my
book would get two I got I spelled
classification with an extra I the point
is we will always make mistakes and we
will always make failures but the idea
is not to keep count of how many you
wrapped up in your life no matter how
long or short it is the idea is to make
them count every single time to remember
it and to not repeat it to make it work
for you instead of the other way around
Emma’s fan of code so allow me to share
with you a personal favorite of mine and
I think sir Odie has already alluded to
it earlier it’s your attitude not your
aptitude that determines your altitude
this was spoken by Zig Ziglar for the
longest time I just thought that this
was the proverbial battle between EQ and
IQ you know how how we placed such a
huge importance on technical skills over
E overpowering people skills but at the
end of the day it’s Feeny our soft
skills that went out at the end it
wasn’t until after five years in the
workforce that this adage
this maxim has taken on a completely new
meaning for me I don’t think I was
invited to speak before you here today
because I’m the greatest failure nor
success st. Jude Catholic school has
ever produced I do think I’m here to
tell you however that neither success
nor failure is an end state rather
they’re simply the catalysts are the
pivotal moments from which you must
always ask ourselves so what what now
how do I move on or how do I move
forward because the minute you start
resting on your laurels for the people
who are enjoying a bit of success at
this point in their lives
the minute you rest on your laurels you
allow your someone else to people behind
you and meet you if on the other hand
you feel like you have some improvements
to make and you realize or the second
that rather that you second-guess
yourself you don’t allow yourself that
responsibility and that chance to dust
yourself off and try again
I implore the youth of the day two
things forget your successes right away
but never ever forget your failures
undocumented unglamorous the staying
power of your failures far surpasses and
is far more potent than any other frame
certificate shiny medal or heavy trophy
that they bestow upon you as I always
tell my kids or the people the people in
privilege to mentor you’re only as good
as your last success but you’re already
always better than your last failure
when I was in grade six
I was vying for the gold medal in the
annual Spelling Bee and he’s very host I
was just about to spell the word femme
fatale but I forgot to spell it with a
letter e at the end I never quite forgot
that because I didn’t get to have my
name published on the Chinese yearbook
as how I would have wanted it to perhaps
because it was the most acute failure
that I remember perhaps more so because
I proposed idli made it into my first
yahoo email address very much active
until today
just so I never do forget thank you very
much
[Applause]
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