In my prior essay, Dare To Fail … Terrifically, I used the swaying rope bridge in Indiana Jones as a metaphor for overcoming the feeling of unease that inevitably comes when you try something new. When I look back at my life, I wonder how it would have turned out if I had avoided all of my wobbly bridges. For example, when I was twenty one, I was a junior in college. Even though I had never seen a computer in my life, I decided to take a computer programming course as an elective. Unfortunately, I entered a course with Computer Science majors, using a scientific language (FORTRAN), programming scientific applications. I happened to be an Accounting major at the time, in the business division of the school.
Believe me when I tell you that during this class, I was swinging and swaying on that metaphoric rope bridge. I vividly recall my feelings when I labored away in the computer lab as my peers came and went; completing their projects in a fraction of the time it took me. As I sat there late in the evening, sometimes alone, I felt utterly stupid, thinking “What am I doing here?” Long story short, I failed the course terrifically.
