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Ready, Set, Fail!

No one likes to fail. But find out why it can actually be good for you.

As You Read: Think about whether you have ever failed. Did it help you in some way?

Imagine this. You get a low grade on a test. Or you lose a game at recess. Or maybe you bake a cake that tastes awful. 

What do these things have in common? Some people might say they are failures—and that we should feel bad about failing. But is that the full answer? Many experts don’t believe so. 

“Failure is not as horrible as you might think it is,” explains Samuel West. He’s a psychologist, someone who studies how people think. 

West says setbacks can actually be good for us.  

Imagine this. You get a low grade on a test. Or you lose a game at recess. Or maybe you bake a cake that tastes awful. 

What do these things have in common? Some people might say they are failures. They might also say we should feel bad about failing. But is that the full answer? Many experts don’t believe so. 

“Failure is not as horrible as you might think it is,” explains Samuel West. He’s a psychologist. That is someone who studies how people think. 

West says setbacks can actually be good for us.  

Epic Fails

Here are three items from the Museum of Failure.

Here are three items from the Museum of Failure.

Museum of Failure

Fail! This pet water was first sold in 1994. It was no longer made after that year.

Fail! This pet water was first sold in 1994. It was no longer made after that year.

Museum of Failure

Fail! Little Miss No-Name was meant to show a girl different from Barbie. Kids were terrified.

Fail! Little Miss No-Name was meant to show a girl different from Barbie. Kids were terrified.

Museum of Failure

Fail! The Nintendo Power Glove was hard to set up and didn’t work well.

Fail! The Nintendo Power Glove was hard to set up and didn’t work well.

Everybody Fails

West knows so much about failure that he created the Museum of Failure in 2018. The museum has more than 150 products that flopped. Many of them were made by successful companies like Apple, Coca-Cola, and Google. West says one of the goals of the museum is to show that making mistakes isn’t all bad. 

“You can fail 1,000 times and still be very successful,” West says.

One of the items in West’s museum is Nintendo’s Power Glove. It came out in 1989. Players wore the glove and used their hands to move characters on screens. But the Power Glove was a flop. 

Nintendo still believed in the idea though. The company worked for years to improve the technology. It put out the Wii in 2006. Since then, Nintendo has sold more than 100 million Wiis.

West knows a lot about failure. He knows so much that he created the Museum of Failure in 2018. The museum has more than 150 products. All of them have flopped. Many of them were made by successful companies. These include Apple, Coca-Cola, and Google. West says one of the goals of the museum is to show that making mistakes isn’t all bad. 

“You can fail 1,000 times and still be very successful,” he says.

One of the items in West’s museum is Nintendo’s Power Glove. It came out in 1989. Players wore the glove and used their hands to move characters on screens. But the Power Glove was a flop. 

Nintendo still believed in the idea though. The company worked on it for years. It wanted to improve the technology. It put out the Wii in 2006. Since then, Nintendo has sold more than 100 million Wiis.

Nick Wass/AP Images

Dev (left) celebrates his big win at the spelling bee. 

Stick With It

Chances are, your first try at anything new won’t work out well. Your 10th and 20th tries may not go so well either. That’s OK. Making mistakes is an important part of reaching goals. The trick is not to give up. 

Fourteen-year-old Dev Shah knows all about that. The first time he competed in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, he came in 51st place. Last year, he didn’t even make it into the competition. 

But this year? Dev was the national champion at the spelling bee. After his earlier losses, the win taught him a very important lesson.

“It gave me the reassurance that I should never give up,” Dev told The New York Times.

So the next time something doesn’t go your way, remember you haven’t failed. You’ve taken a step toward success! 

Chances are, your first try at anything new won’t work out well. Your 10th and 20th tries may not go so well either. That’s OK. Making mistakes is an important part of reaching goals. The trick is not to give up. 

Fourteen-year-old Dev Shah knows all about that. He competed in the Scripps National Spelling Bee a few times. The first time, he came in 51st place. Last year, he didn’t even make it into the competition. 

But this year? Dev was the national champion at the spelling bee. After his earlier losses, the win taught him a very important lesson.

“It gave me the reassurance that I should never give up,” Dev told The New York Times.

So the next time something doesn’t go your way, remember you haven’t failed. You’ve taken a step toward success!

Pause and Think

Would you be proud to be in the Museum of Failure? Why or why not?

Would you be proud to be in the Museum of Failure? Why or why not?

Train Your Brain

When dealing with failure, don’t be too hard on yourself. Here are some tips for staying positive.

Instead of . . . I give up.

Try . . . I'll try a different plan.


Instead of . . . I'm not good at this.

Try . . . What am I missing?


Instead of . . . This is too hard.

Try . . . This may take some time.


Instead of . . . I can’t make this any better.

Try . . . I can always improve.

When dealing with failure, don’t be too hard on yourself. Here are some tips for staying positive.

Instead of . . . I give up.

Try . . . I'll try a different plan.


Instead of . . . I'm not good at this.

Try . . . What am I missing?


Instead of . . . This is too hard.

Try . . . This may take some time.


Instead of . . . I can’t make this any better.

Try . . . I can always improve.

  1. What might be another good title for the article? Explain.
  2. Why did Samuel West include the Nintendo Power Glove in his Museum of Failure? Give evidence from the text to support your response.
  3. What is the purpose of the sidebar, “Train Your Brain”?
  1. What might be another good title for the article? Explain.
  2. Why did Samuel West include the Nintendo Power Glove in his Museum of Failure? Give evidence from the text to support your response.
  3. What is the purpose of the sidebar, “Train Your Brain”?
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