I was 9 years old and couldn’t ride a bike without training wheels. I remember my Father spending endless summer days running behind me pushing my bike, he would let go and… crash I would hit the black top so hard. Tears would stream down my face and my father would run over and hug me till I stopped crying. Then he would ask me to try again. To make matters worse, a boy who was in my class and lived next store would come out and laugh at me saying, “I can’t believe your 9 years old and can’t ride a bike yet, looser!”. I was crushed, I felt like the biggest failure.

The last week of the summer my parents went out to the garage to get the bikes ready for a ride. I came out all excited ready to go, my father looked at me and said, “As soon as you can ride your bike without training wheels you can go with us”. I watched them ride away with tears in my eyes.

At nine years old I asked myself why can’t I ride my stupid bike! I realized my worse fear was falling so I decided that day to learn how to fall with out it hurting and I did that over and over again while they were gone. The next day my Father came out and said are you ready to try again. I exclaimed, YES! He began running behind me pushing away, let go and for the first time I kept riding all by myself. My father was so excited he screamed out to me, “keep riding, don’t stop, don’t stop! I am grabbing my bike, we are going for a ride!”.  That day we rode for 2hrs before coming back to the house. My father was probably the proudest father for the next year as he would tell everyone the story.

Failure, with all our efforts we strive to avoid it, however we may just be missing the beauty of failure. Say what…failure is beautiful!?

With every pursuit I embark on in this life I meet challenges. This is so unavoidable for me. And over the years as I have shared my heart with other creatives, business owners and adventures, I have discovered they too deal with these bumps in the road. Of course we all desire “smooth sailing”, but at the end of the day these ups and downs, these challenges, these bumps are what keep us engaged, pushing foward and running after our dreams. Some of the most profound moments in my life have been discovered due to failure, as well as some of my most wildest adventures. Failure has allowed me to grow as an individual, improve my skills, expand my creative realm, and most important it has given way to incredible experiences I would have not other wise encountered.

Failure is not something to be feared but rather embraced and learned from. Failure is the ultimate test of inner strength, patience, and faith.