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Unread 10-02-2006, 14:54
Dr.Bot
 
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Re: For Mentors Only: Inspiring Youth

Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Rotolo
Don't let them fail at the end.

Don
Failure is relative. Losing a match, or even a tournament may be a short term faliure, but lead to important lessons that lead to even greater success.

In 1999, the rookie team I mentored finished 192/212 at the Nats. The next year they won the Nats. There would of been no success in 2000, if not for the 'failures' of 99. What is the hardest thing for a mentor to do, is let them learn through 'small' failures, so that they can build upon small successes, and finally 'big' success. Guess what? There are very few big failures in FIRST competiton. A big "failure" is not shipping a robot. Fortunately, this happens very rarely.


In my book, if you as a mentor/coach, have got your team to ship a robot and show up at the competition. You're a big success. As a matter of fact, if you're alive, breathing, and reading this, a million, billion things had to succeed to get you here, starting from the big bang 15 billion years ago. So relax and have fun, and don't sweat the small stuff!
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