Failing Forward Robby Stigler

One of the most important failures I have experienced was in a program called DI (Destination Imagination), a creative problem solving competition. DI has been a major part of my life not just through my own experiences, but through my family as well. Both of my sisters participated from second to twelfth grade, and my father has been a team manager for over twenty teams, spanning ten years. From eighth to tenth grade, my team had advanced to state every year and placed in the top eight teams in the state.

Then, in eleventh grade, things changed. Both of my sisters were in college, and my father could not find enough time to manage my team, if I were to have one. So I talked to a group of my friends who hadn’t been in DI before and corralled a team together, with myself taking on a leadership position for the first time. It wasn’t until then that I realized how difficult being a leader is. I had to find times and places where everyone could meet, which meant knowing six people’s schedules. I had to catalog our supplies and manage the budget. I had to guide my friends through their first year in DI. Hardest of all was walking the line between friend and leader, giving my friends assignments while trying to maintain a peer-peer...