Some people don’t fail until they’re 45 years old—and it devastates them. Fail early and get it all over with. If you learn to deal with failure, you can raise teenagers. You can abide in intimate relationships. And you can have a worthwhile career. You learn to breathe again when you embrace failure as a part of life, not as the determining moment of life. Work on your own passions, not someone else’s.
– Rt. Rev. William L. Swing, speaking at Stanford’s Class of 2007 Baccalaureate Celebration