Overcoming Failure: College Admission Essay Sample

Even as a kid, I always had a strong entrepreneurial spirit. I tried making a neighborhood newspaper, crafting homemade walking sticks, and even selling my Pokemon cards. One of my biggest business endeavors featured 11-year-old me digging out a patch of my backyard to plant a garden. Armed with a bag full of tomato, corn, cucumber, lemon-mint, lettuce, and pumpkin seeds, I got to work meticulously planting each one. I spent the following weeks tending to my little moneymakers daily. When harvest time came, I was delighted with my results; my garden was a cornucopia of fruits, vegetables, and herbs—even pumpkins! However, when it came time to sell my bounty, there were no buyers to be found. All of my neighbors already had their own gardens or could find cheaper prices at the supermarket.

The gardening venture mishaps and all of the others taught me some very important lessons regarding business: my prices needed to be lower and there had to be a demand in the market. I also learned that failure should not cause discouragement, but rather encourage me to find out why something didn’t work and how I could adjust my strategy to succeed. This last lesson has helped me most recently, especially in my latest endeavor, stock trading; through some trial and error, I’ve been able to make a 5% return on the $1000 I’ve personally invested. So, while I’m no stranger to failure, I’ve always made sure to use each situation as a learning experience to improve my future returns, in venture after venture.