Failure and the Asian culture

Being an Asian American means you live with Asian culture and American culture at the same time. Sometimes it conflicts, which makes it really difficult, especially if you're still young and impressionable.

I'm reading the book "Bounce" by Barry Moltz, which talks about the role of failure in success. Failure is a natural part of being successful, but in our society failure means you weren't smart enough, you didn't work hard enough. On page 66 of the book it talks about how failure is taken in the Asian culture... i.e. you've shamed yourself, your family, and the entire galaxy. Getting a B means you were that far away from getting an A. Asian parents believe that 2nd place is the first loser.



The advantage of the Asian culture in this case is the concept of humility. If we can take the humility part from the Asian culture and the risk-taking part of the American culture, we'd be very successful. One of the things the book talks about is failing with humility allows you to learn the most out of the failure.