I choose the beginning ...

We see these phrases daily, as we log into the Twitter-verse and are asked “what’s happening?” or our Facebook pages and see “what’s on your mind” in the status update box at the top of the page. In general, most of us type something trivial about what we are planning to do with our day, or how we spent our weekend. I am not immune to this either, as many of you reading this already know. However, today is different.

Seeing this question today kicked my brain into full pondering mode and has left me to wonder if it is better to have gotten so close and had nothing in the end, or simply to have never gotten past that first all-important speed bump before failing? In some cases, failing in the beginning means you missed the joy of the adventure before it ended badly. I liken this to that T.V. show The Amazing Race. The goal of each team when they start is to win $1million but each of them knows their chances are slim. At the end of each televised broadcast, the team eliminated that week utters a similar sentiment. The all agree that they are upset for not winning the money, but wouldn’t have done it any different and that all-in-all, the journey, and whatever changes have happened to themselves and the relationship with their team mate were worth the pain in the end. In their case, failing at the end of the road, right before getting the check for $1million and walking away empty handed is painful, but well worth the trip. Had they failed in the beginning, right out of the starting gate, their adventure around the world would have been cut short. Failing this early in the game would have been worse for them than completing the race empty handed.

But this situation is not applied universally. Quite often, failing in at all is just as bad, no matter how far into the journey you are. Take the student of math who struggles through the first six of a twelve week course before reaching the point of no return. They know that there is no possible way to obtain a passing grade in the class, there is simply not enough time left in the class to raise their score enough. Knowing this at only six weeks into the class means they can stop wasting their time attending a class they will not pass. Instead they can concentrate their efforts on attending tutoring sessions that will help them one on one to grasp the concepts better for the next time they enroll in the very same class. The outcome is still a failing grade for the current semester, but with six weeks of “free time” they would not have had otherwise, they can begin to work on solving what is at the core of their poor grade rather than simply trying to catch up to the class who already grasps the concepts they missed in the first half of the class.

These are two very different examples, and neither comes close to resembling the true scenario I am contemplating in my head today, but for the purposes of this very public blog, they are close enough. I think for my personal situation, failing at all sucks, but getting so close to the end, within reach of that million dollar check if you will, would make the failure all the more painful and hard to swallow. My heart goes out to those who find themselves in that position.