To paraphrase Michael Jordan, failure is a great teacher. And boy, have I failed at speech and debate. My league hides the last few placers in each event. I've been in the hidden 43 times in my career. Fourteen times, I placed dead last out of everyone. I competed and failed to place in the top 40% 199 times. Twenty-one times, I was one place away. I've failed over and over and over again in forensics. Since then, I have advanced to finals in all categories of speech and debate many times. Let me share what I learned! The cover was designed with icons from freeicon.com.