Last week, for the first time in ages, I had the luxury of a few hours to read. I had already bought this book a couple of years ago. “What I wish I knew when I was 20” by Tina Seelig. Picked up at an airport somewhere in Asia, thrown in my carry-on luggage, and then in my library and now rediscovered. Flipping through the pages, there were many moments I found myself thinking “What an amazing idea”. Like this one, when the author Tina Seelig describes how she gives her students the task to draft a failure resume.

Brilliant.

In my head, I started drafting my failure resume instantly.

The little screw ups and the big ones, the personal and the professional ones. When I look back today, I see that each and every entry in my failure resume allowed my life to take a turn I would have never envisioned. The little and big failures made me who I am. Because I coped. Got over them. Moved on.

After academic and professional failures along the way, I found fantastic jobs, working for event companies in Europe and Asia. That led me to do meaningful research and programme management for an NGO in mainland China but only after many rejections from organisations I wanted to work for in the first place.

Relocating to yet another city in Asia allowed me to work on projects for The Economist in Hong Kong and even help startups with community building. Talking to so many inspiring entrepreneurs triggered my curiosity for building something from scratch…

…and the idea of this Podcast was born.

These were just the professional turns my life took. I believe for the better. Maybe this is just me being a hopeless optimist, but fact is, drafting my failure resume made me smile. It might sound tacky, but all of my failures did turn into something meaningful and that is what I wish I knew when I was 20.

Have a lovely day.

Yours,
Regina
#impact Podcast host

PS: Don’t miss the first episode of #impact Podcast when Sue Toomey talks about her understanding of failure. #impact Podcast will launch soon. Subscribe.