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·   Consultation, Outreach & Supervision ·   The Success/Failure Project

 
 
The Success/Failure Project
"Success is 99 percent failure."
-Soichiro Honda, Founder, Honda Motor Company
 

Have your experienced
a favorite failure or
a sorry success?
Send us your story...!


CONTACT US

• About the Project  Video Clips  Quotations  
Readings and Links 
Events and Activities Contact Us

About the Project

MISSION

The university experience, at its best, is transformative.  It challenges students to continually reexamine their assumptions about themselves and the world, including their assumptions about what it means to succeed and what it means to fail.  The mission of the Success/Failure Project is to create opportunities for discussion, reflection, understanding, and creative engagement regarding issues of success and failure.       

Students grapple with questions like these:

  • What am I working for? Who am I working for?
  • What constitutes success? Who defines that? What constitutes failure? Who defines that?
  • Where do my beliefs about success and failure come from?
  • What does it mean to be responsible for, to learn from, or just to suffer, both my successes and my failures?
  • What roles do ambition, creativity, perfectionism, and joy play in my life and learning?  How about other factors and feelings, such as obligation, competition, integrity, achievement, chance, fear, talent, shame, necessity, obedience, curiosity, collaboration, surprise, and exploration?
  • What does it mean to be a good, successful, even excellent student and human being?

On this website you will find personal stories of success and failure, inspirational (or just funny) quotations, links to readings and other resources, and information about The Success/Failure Project activities and events. 

STAFF

The Success/Failure Project is an initiative of the staff of the Bureau of Study Counsel, in collaboration with various guests and colleagues. The Project is currently co-chaired by two public high school dropouts, Abigail Lipson, Ph.D., the Director of the Bureau of Study Counsel, and Ariel Phillips, Ed.D., of the Bureau staff.

CONTACT US

We welcome your feedback and contributions, especially your "favorite failure" or "sorry success" stories, your recommendations for quotations or readings, and your ideas for Success/Failure Project activities.  Contact us at: The Success/Failure Project.

Contact information for the Bureau is located at the bottom of every page. Students in Harvard College, GSAS, KSG, and GSE who are struggling with issues of success and failure in their lives and work are invited to join a Bureau group/workshop or consult individually with a Bureau counselor.