The Fear of Failure – English 12 Blog Log 2

The Art of Failure – Written by Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell, a writer for the New Yorker, wrote an article about a topic that resonates a lot to me, failure. Gladwell in his article, reveals different types of failure, most notably choking, which is a term used to describe when one does not succeed under pressure. Failure is an interesting topic to me because it is my biggest fear. Knowing that there is a possibility I may not succeed despite working as hard as I can is a scary thought to comprehend. Choking is commonly associated with sports when athletes fail to succeed at the most important moments. It is a very interesting yet unusual circumstance because failure, in this case, is not caused by lack of work ethic or talent but caused due to panic; Gladwell explains further in his article. One thing that stood out to me about this article was the amount of factual evidence that Gladwell included in his writing. This provides the reader with confirmation knowing this article is a source one can trust. Gladwell also uses copious amounts of figurative language that emphasizes his argument in an interesting way. I find a strong connection to this article because I have known what it feels to “choke” and fail under the pressure. There are also many examples of how, in particular, athletes have failed at the highest level and performed below expectations. Failure is a result that everyone avoids but faces eventually in their life. Because of this, it is important how one responds to failure and to rise from their mistakes and not repeat what went wrong.