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FAILING OUR WAY TO SUCCESS!

Each of us has some things we do very well. I play the piano well. I’m an extremely good typist.

We have other things we CAN do, but we have to put in an extreme amount of time, thought, energy, and effort when we do them. I love a house which is in good order, spotlessly clean. That’s not my talent. I can MAKE IT HAPPEN, but it doesn’t come naturally for me as it does for others. I can cook, even some semi-gourmet meals, as long as I am reading carefully and following every word of the recipe, while others just put in a pinch of this and a tad bit of that. I do SILLY things when I cook. I recently caught my daughter-in-law grinning when she asked me how long I set the microwave for the large dish of potatoes and I said, "I just hit the 'potato' button." I saw her grin, but she didn't say a word. Everyone knows my flaws.

We have still other things that no matter how hard we try, we just weren’t meant to do them. You hear people say, "We can all do anything we want to do, as long as we work hard enough at it." That's not reality. We weren't all MEANT to do everything equally well. It would be a boring world if we were.

I can't even draw a stick cat correctly! I cannot play card games. I've tried. I've studied books about it. It just won't happen for me, while others don't even have to think about it. It's as easy as breathing to them. That's frustrating to me, but it's reality. Life isn't always fair, but it makes sense that not all of us are equally talented at everything. We don't need millions of brain surgeons!

Karate was one of those 'wake-up moments' for me. I struggled for three years before facing the reality of it, with the help of my very famous and talented karate instructor. He said something to the effect of, “Leeenda, your best defense is TEARS!”

Another one of my never-will-be-able-to-master-it skills would have to be putting the meal on the table and making it beautiful. Presentation of the meal. I’m terrible at that. I also throw food in the refrigerator in the wrong storage containers or in a bowl with no lid. I’ve tried, but I just don’t ‘get’ how to do those things.

The world likes to judge us according to some method someone somewhere, sometime developed. Maybe it worked for them, but it doesn’t work for me. In fact, I'm convinced the anonymous 'they' were in over their heads when they set their judgement scale. I REFUSE to be judged a failure because I’m uncoordinated. Okay, my fingers are coordinated, but nothing else. I also tend to feel inferior, possibly for very good reason, but that's another story for another time. The story I want to tell is one where I am wrongly and cruelly judged, but I come out the victor. Just like a Jane Austen novel!

A number of years ago I decided to find out what I should be when I grow up. No matter that I WAS already grown up and had been for years. I was changing careers and thought I would go in for ‘career counseling’ at both private employment services and our state employment agency.

I took a typing test at our largest employment agency and they came in all excited, “You’ve broken the typing record for this location since we opened the business!” I was mildly happy about that, but more interested in what I could DO with that skill. That was my reason for being there. My goal that day was not to beat everyone else in typing speed and accuracy. I already knew that when I take a typing test, I go into a ‘Zone’ where I’m only competing with myself. I don’t care what others do or if they do better or faster. I am ‘in that moment’ and doing the best I can do at that moment. That's the best any of us can ask for in typing drills.

Next I went to the state employment agency where they greeted me warmly. The loveliest three ladies were in charge, all full of enthusiasm and smiles.

The ladies had all 50 or so of us go into a large room. They told me we would be putting square pegs in square holes and round pegs in round holes. I remember saying, “But I can’t do that. I’ve never been able to do that.” “Oh, honey, of course you can. Everyone can do that.” So I believed them and sat down to do it. After what seemed to be hours, although it couldn’t have been that long, I heard, “TIME!!!” I also heard the ladies giggle a little, but I didn’t yet know why. I looked around the room and only one man, obviously drunk and who had stumbled in off the street, was there in the room with me. The others had all finished and left. I had no idea how long it had been only the two of us in there. I only hope he was doing better than I was!

The ladies thanked me and said my information about what careers I would be suited for would be sent to me by mail. By the way, later I got one letter. It said I should be a veterinarian. THEIR skills fell short in the area of achieving the results of those tests.

I told the ladies that I would like to take a typing test. They all looked at each other and giggled. I realized they were laughing AT me, not with me. At that point I knew that my goal had changed. I wanted to teach THEM something. Just because you're a failure at ONE skill doesn't mean you are a failure at ALL skills!

One of the ladies, and at this point I had decided they weren't so kind at all, came up and hugged me. “Of COURSE you would, honey. Let me take you in here and we’ll get you set up. Okay, here you go. You just practice and practice to your heart’s content and when you’re ready, just let me know and I’ll start the test. I said, “I don’t really need to practice. I’m ready for the test now.” She hugged me again and said, “Oh, honey, I understand.” She didn't.

So I sat down and took that test, quietly getting into my ‘Zone’ and doing what needed to be done on that test. I kept typing the material over and over, because there wasn’t enough there to type. I heard, “TIME! Honey, your time is up. I’m going to go check your results and I’ll be back in a minute.” She came back excitedly saying , “HONEY! HONEY! DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID?!!!” Of course I did. I taught those ladies a LESSON. That’s what I did, but I said, “What did I do?” “You just broke all the records for this agency! Nobody has ever typed this fast in typing tests here.” I stayed very calm and said, “Oh, that’s good, but I’m not happy with that test at ALL! I wonder if I could take the test again. I would like to do better.” She looked stunned, but said I could and I did. The second test was better than the first.

I learned a number of LIFE LESSONS from that experience.

*The people testing me were incompetent.

*People were being judged on putting round pegs in round holes, when that’s only ONE skill. There are other skills.

*Just because one is very bad at one thing doesn’t mean they are very bad at EVERYTHING!

I found something I was good at, probably because I started playing the piano at 3 years of age, my fingers are highly coordinated. My brain, not so much.

If any of you find that you are ‘not talented’ at learning medical terminology, for example, don’t despair! Do your best. You may shine when you come to the actual CODING or TRANSCRIPTION part of the course, and that’s the main thing anyway.

You may find that you are very good at following instructions. That will pay off while you are here in school AND on the job later. POLISH that skill!

Maybe you are a medical transcription student and you just don’t ‘get’ punctuation. You may NEVER be perfect at applying the correct punctuation. You don’t have to be perfect. That skill can be improved, but doesn’t have to be perfected.

Those are similar to the round pegs in the round holes. Not everyone can do that easily. Given time, we can improve our skills. That’s an appropriate goal. I never wanted to be a round-peg-in-round-hole expert anyway. You don’t really intend to be a medical terminologist, but you can learn enough so that you can be very effective in your job.

PUNCTUATION, for example, IS NOT THE MAIN THING. It’s a tool. It isn’t the end goal. Neither is medical terminology. It's necessary to learn them to an appropriate level so you can code or transcribe properly, but they are not THE most important part of the course.

As one very highly placed recruiter/QA Trainer told me recently, “tell your students NOT TO MAKE IT PRETTY!” Another recruiter said, “All accounts are different. Some accounts don’t care about punctuation at all and others are very picky about it. We require from our transcriptionists what our client requires of us. That varies with each account.”

You will want to reach the highest level of excellence you can in all of these skills so you'll have MORE options available to you. We require that you reach ‘marketable’ skills, not that you are perfect in terminology, in A&P, in punctuation and grammar, etc.

Occasionally we have to sit down 'symbolically' by e-mail with a student and explain that their skills are not coming together in a way that will be marketable. They have reached the highest level they evidently are able to reach, and the skills are not those that an employer would pay for.

We point out that the student may have failed the course, but they can still use some of the skills they HAVE been able to learn. Some of those skills may be helpful in other jobs, such as medical secretary, medical administrative assistant, medical typist, insurance clerk (for coders), etc. Even those who fail the course can succeed if they look for jobs that require the skills that they HAVE learned, but don’t require the ones they were unable to master.

Some of the most successful people have literally 'failed' their way to success. Thomas A. Edison said, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." Failure hurts, but looking back on all my past failures, I can say that I, like many others, was failing my way to success.