fail

More than a year ago, I made a resume of all my most significant failures.

For over half a year, I’ve kept a public page of failures on my website, updating it pretty much every time a rejection notification or letter lands in my inbox—or in some cases, when I don’t hear anything back, indicating that I’ve been Ghosted™.

I’ve also added an FAQ section introducing what the concept is, why I made it, does it make me feel bad about myself, and a response to something I sometimes hear, which is that some of them don’t sound like failures.

Interestingly, despite receiving little effort from me and being in a constant state of “under construction” and “[insert feature] coming soon,” this failure resume has gotten traction and attention.

Devan featured it in an article about how to stand out. Samay, an acquaintance from Hack Club, featured it a presentation he gave at his college about building your personal brand. Surprisingly, several people have said that it’s funny—I only sort of understand why.

I think it has reached the point where I do need to give it some more attention. In particular I think instead of creating a laundry list of every rejection, big or small, I’ve received, I should highlight the ones where I learned the most and share the reflections and lessons.