Winning essays from the CAF contest "My Failure Story“   Moosung Lee   / Department of Physics The failures during my career were not the end of my life, and thus I was able to learn many things as I continued down my path. The animal that suffers the most in the world invented laughter. I also fit under this category, and so I am looking for joy as I look back upon my past failures. One who will have a lot to say one day will quietly build things up in their heart. I do not know when I will achieve success, but until then, I plan to enjoy my life by doing what I enjoy doing: finding new problems to solve. Since it will all come to an end one day, let us fight it with all our might.

Winning essays from the CAF contest "My Failure Story" Dana Moldakulova   / School of Business and Technology Management  The only person, who never fails, it is the one, who never tries. A person, who is aspiring for something great and disruptive always would face obstacles and failures. It is just a part of the journey. But the one thing we should keep in mind is that life always rewards great efforts! And probably exactly your efforts will be the one, that will change our whole world for the better place to live in! Therefore, never give up and strive for your dream!  

The second CAF Failure Seminar was held on November 3rd. The 'Failure Seminar' is a talk series hosted by CAF where leaders from various fields are invited to share their failure experiences and unique perspectives on failure, encouraging the audience to take on new challenges. Unlike the first seminar, which was held as an online event in spring, the second Failure Seminar was an in-person event held at the KAIST Yang Seungtaik Auditorium, bringing the speakers and audience even closer together.   The morning session, which was centered around the theme of ‘Failure Studies for Entrepreneurs,’ featured talks by Lee Yongkwan from Bluepoint Partners and Lee Jinyeol from the Korea Senior Lab. Lee Yongkwan, who has experience investing in over 260 companies, emphasized the need for entrepreneurs to develop their metacognition skills, which allows them to maintain objective situation awareness. Lee supported his points by describing his own experiences. Lee Jinyeol gave a vivid recount of the lessons he had learned from his initial failure as an entrepreneur, which he credits as the reason why he is able to successfully lead his current venture in the Korea Senior Lab. His message to entrepreneurs is to strive to become not the ‘No. 1,’ but rather the ‘Only 1.’   In the afternoon session that followed, Professor Kim So Young from the KAIST Graduate School of Science and Technology Policy and Yun Yuh Soon (the first woman to be given a leadership role in LG and the current CEO of LG Art Center) shared unique and diverse perspectives on the fear of failure. Professor Kim started her speech with “failure is indeed something we should be afraid of.” She presented the audience with various cases from sports, startups, and research in addition to her own firsthand experiences to discuss a different view on failure. Yun described various episodes from her life, such as the disastrous time she had studying abroad or the countless setbacks and successes she went through to become the first woman in an executive position in LG. She also gave her thoughts on how people should approach their careers and life as a whole with the world undergoing drastic changes.   The four invited speakers come from diverse backgrounds and have all walked different paths in different fields. Nevertheless, they all emphasized the same message when it comes to failure: the importance of knowing oneself. Being fully aware of one’s situation (Lee Yongkwan), saying no to standards set by others and thinking about what is truly important to oneself, (Lee Jinyeol), understanding one’s potential and limits based on personal experiences and decisions (Kim So Young), and focusing on one’s strengths and accomplishments (Yun Yuh Soon) – these are important traits that will allow an individual to avoid major setbacks and find valuable meaning in failure experiences.   It is also important to remember that life is an ongoing process and that we should not label each and every event that we experience as either a success or failure. The speakers also reiterated the importance of focusing on the lessons to be learned from our setbacks in life instead of dwelling on each failure.   When the audience was asked how about they felt about the online/offline event, one member of the audience said, ‘after listening to the speakers talk about their life experiences, I now have a wider perspective when it comes to success and failure.’ Another audience member said, ‘it was heartwarming and encouraging to hear the speakers give honest recounts of their failures.’ Many also felt recharged by the highly contagious positivity emitted by the speakers.

Winning essays from the CAF contest "My Failure Story" SEUNGIK JEONG / Social Enterpreneurship MBA Although I failed three business ventures in my 20s, I did not give up and continued to push forward. Now, I am in a position where I can help those in need around me. Failure is inevitable in life: the real question is, ‘who can get back on their feet the fastest?’ 

Winning essays from the CAF contest "My Failure Story" Insu Choi  / Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering Even to this day, I continually experience failure. However, my failures are the result of challenges that  I accepted as I walked down my path, and since I know each failure is an important addition to my  portfolio, I am no longer afraid of falling over and getting up again. In his book ‘Twilight of the Idols,’  Nietzsche wrote, ‘whatever does not kill me makes me stronger.’ Likewise, I believe that I am becom-  ing a better engineer through my failures. I am proud that I have become a stronger person who has  become resilient to failure with the strength to get back on my feet, which I developed through all my  shortcomings and the struggles I went through to overcome them, as archived in my portfolio. 

A Gathering of First-Movers  Who Tackle the Issue of Failure : The 2nd Rechallenge International Forum Overview On October 13th, the 2nd Rechallenge International Forum was held at Cheongju Dongbu  Changko. This event, which was inaugurated in 2021, is held annually on the International Day for Failure (October 13th) as part of the Fail Expo organized by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS). This forum is unique in that members from the private, government, and academic sectors gather to share various stories and experiences about failure and retrying while also discussing opportunities to promote international soli- darity and cooperation. This year’s event was co-hosted by the Chungcheongbuk-do government and the KAIST Center for Ambitious Failure (CAF), a collaboration that helped to expand the scope of the forum and facilitate the sharing of more diverse cases with in-depth discussions.

Winning essays from the CAF contest "My Failure Story" 000 | KAIST Department of Bio and Brain Engineering Our society often perceives grief as a debilitating and pitiful condition, but my grief has taught me that the most vulnerable people are in the greatest need of empathy and understanding. I have grown to accept that I am different and that I will never be able to alter my family history to resemble that of my friends. Instead of seeking acceptance from society, instead of demanding to be seen as more than just a broken person, I have come to terms with how my grief has made me more sensitive to different shades human suffering. Instead of comparing my past with my friends’ past as an excuse to explain why my inner life has felt so different, I have learnt to acknowledge that suffering cannot be measured by any metric standards. My suffering has taught me to be open to other people’s suffering, to not shun their weaknesses or look the other way when their pain gets too unbearable. 

Winning essays from the CAF contest "My Failure Story" 000  |  KAIST School of Electrical Engineering Overall, the failures that I experienced remained as fears in my mind. Since I never became accustomed to the idea of failure, the problems I encountered were left as traumatic experiences. Because of my growing fear of failure, I was unable to overcome the sense of inferiority and insecurity in me, which left me hesitant to take on new challenges. When we play video games, we get angry when our character dies, but we move on and try again. However, we tend to be less forgiving with ourselves when it comes to our careers or our education. Instead of studying for the sake of earning good grades, go out there and experience as many different things as you can: just give it a go. Don’t worry about what happens if you fail, and don’t worry if you are not good at something. Forget about the past and press the play button again and move on. I hope that my story can help others find their path and confidence.

Professor Sang Kyu Park | Owens Liberal Arts College, Korea Nazarene University Professor Park has a doctoral degree in public administration (major: organizational theory) from Chungnam National University. Since 2017, Professor Park has taught courses at Korea Nazarene University titled “Learning to Succeed through Failure,” and he also recently published a translated version of the book 「Learning from Entrepreneurial Failure」 (2021). He serves as a private committee member of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety’s Fail Expo and participates in projects that aim to shift the public perception of failure and create assets based on knowledge gained from failure. His main research interest in the field of failure studies involves the integration of active administration and failure learning theories. Professor Park is currently writing a book with the working title of ‘Failure Studies Research,’ which he hopes will encourage other universities to implement lectures on failure studies. 

Winning essays from the CAF contest "My Failure Story" Fachrina Dewi Puspitasari (KAIST Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering) All these occur in my comfort zone. I was only carefully picking which choices were suitable for my safe life. I have never done a self-assessment to acknowledge my limit. Never has it crossed my mind what awaits me beyond my comfort zone. Therefore, I shamelessly took my luck for granted and thought as if it was the result of my hard work. It gave me a false belief that I am superior to other colleagues who don’t share the same life story and achievements as mine. If you ever encounter a comment claiming that you are not performing well, not because you are a failure. It means you have been lucky for so long that you leash your passions and forget to go beyond your bar.