Defining Self: Failure as Opp

1 Credit · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

What does it mean to fail? Is it a setback or, after careful examination and reflection, an opportunity to succeed? When we are confronted by failure, our instinct is to often view it as all-encompassing and all-consuming: that it will define us, including our future, forever. Each week, through readings, discussions, podcasts, videos, written reflections, and activities, we will examine the failures of entrepreneurs, researchers, politicians, artists, and other leading figures in the world, and how these innovators/change-makers took stock of their setbacks to inform future decisions. We will also take inventory of our own failures (both at Georgetown and beyond) and examine not what could’ve been done differently, but how we can respond moving forward. In a world so driven by labels, titles, success, and failures, how do we really define ourselves?