The third Failure Seminar was held on April 26th at the Yang Seungtaik Auditorium. The ‘Failure Seminar’ is a talk series hosted by the Center for Ambitious Failure (CAF) that invites leaders and pioneers from diverse fields to share their failure stories and perspectives with KAISTians, encouraging them to take on new challenges.

The theme of the third Failure Seminar was “how to deal with everyday failures.” CAF invited Emeritus Professor Soonhung Han from KAIST, CEO of OGQ Chul-ho Shin, and Toss Content Manager Kyunghwa Jeong to share their insights with the audience.

Professor Soonhung Han gave a talk titled ‘How to appreciate small failures’ with the hope that students can overcome their fear of failure and become more accustomed to small failures in their lives. Professor Han’s advice to KAIST students was to go out and experience small failures firsthand, even intentionally if necessary. According to Professor Han, this process cultivates the mental strength necessary to overcome failures, enhancing one’s capacity to deal with setbacks.

KAIST alumnus and founder of OGQ (a content creator platform) Chul-ho Shin described his belief that the only person who can define the magnitude of an individual’s failures as well as their own personal threshold is the individual themselves. Recounting his story, he conveyed a message of hope: even if you repeatedly fail, as long as you are doing what you believe in with perseverance, luck and opportunity will find you one day.

Kyunghwa Jeong, who is a Content Manager at Toss, is known for writing the book ‘An Out-Of-The-Ordinary Challenge,’ which chronicles the growth period of the now-famous Korean startup. As she described various episodes of the Toss team’s struggles, Jeong focused on the transformative impact of failure on both individual team members and the organization as a whole. Describing each episode with vivid detail, Jeong emphasized how each failure did not simply signify the end for the Toss team. She also discussed the attitudes that individuals and organizations need to adopt to leverage failure experiences as catalysts for change and growth.

All three speakers spoke about the perspective with which we should view everyday failures and the importance of doing so. This article provides an overview of the insights shared by the three speakers (each representing different generations, fields, and experiences) regarding how we should view our failures of today within the broader context of life and what we need to do to persevere onward despite setbacks.