Thoughts on Failure

My pseudo-roommate, Jacob, and I were hanging out on the couches yesterday as he procrastinated packing for his move back to Colombia by playing Rock Band. We were both caught up in our own technological worlds and interrupted those with bits of conversation. At one point he asked me, "How do you do with failure."

I had to ask him to clarify. And he kind of narrowed it down to a few, very basic types:

1. The type that won't try anything new unless they know they will be good at it.
2. The type will try a whole bunch of things, fail at some, do well at others, and be great at a few.
or 3. The type that will try new things, but must master one thing before moving on to the next.

Our discussion was very brief, and it mainly focused on Rock Band. Jacob was playing the expert level and said he was the type that would try over and over again until he passed
a song, but he didn't have to get a 100% to pass it. He would be happy just passing.

This made me think... How do I do with failure?

Well, for one thing, nobody likes to fail. It's humbling, demeaning, and over all just really hard to deal with. BUT --- It is inevitable that we will fail at many things through life. I might even argue that we are meant to fail.

That being said, I think I'm okay with failure. I'd rather try and fail at something than never try at all. But I think I'm more the type that will try over and over and over again until I get it right. Not that I've ever played Rock Band, but I think I'd be the type to play again and again until I passed the song. I may not aim for 100%, but I'll keep trying until I get a high enough score. In life, I'm not keen on just letting things fall by the wayside, and saying oh well.

What about you? How do you do with failure?