Amy Rosen: My Pivot Point Taught Me to 'Fail Up'

To celebrate International Women's Day, Amy Rosen, President and CEO of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, shares a pivot point that taught her to 'Fail Up.'

Pivot points- those moments in our lives that truly change us -happen in many different ways. I've had a handful of these myself, including those perfect words of wisdom from mentors and a few significant career changes.

But the biggest lesson I've learned is perseverance comes from setbacks and failures. Picking yourself up and regaining confidence is a critical skill to be successful. After being fired from my first job, I learned to do just that.

In today's business speak, I had a skills gap. I believed I was qualified for my first job that required attention to detail and organization, but I couldn't even keep my own bedroom clean. I was young and thought I was made for anything. I was wrong, and I was fired.

What I lacked in folding skills I made up for in perseverance. I picked myself up and a week later I created my own job. I walked into the new health food store in my town with a fruit drink. Today we'd call it a smoothie, but back then it was an innovative new concept. I asked the owner to sell this in the store and he gave me one Saturday to prove myself. And I did. Through this one act, I took my failure and turned it into a positive opportunity instead of allowing it to derail me. I learned how to "fail up."

More than five years ago when I was named the President and CEO of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), I knew I had found the right place for me. I realized my big pivot point - my 'aha' moment - is exactly what NFTE teaches all our students. NFTE doesn't want any of our students to fail, but we also don't want them to be afraid of failure. So, we teach our students to think and act like entrepreneurs.

At the heart of being an entrepreneur is learning to "fail up" and create opportunity from things that you love. Success is not going to come from doing what you are not good at. Innovate around your personal passions.

I urge all leaders, successful business owners and entrepreneurs to speak up publicly and share failures to show our young people how to be persistent and adapt in an evolving global economy.

Let's not be confused anymore, failure isn't fatal! Everyone can learn to "fail up."