The Museum of Failures
If I curated a museum of my failures, there would be entire wings dedicated to rejection emails.
Assessment centres I didn’t convert.
Training contract applications that ended in silence. Video interviews I replayed in my head for weeks afterwards.
After graduating in 2021, I thought I would have figured it out by now. Instead, years later, I am still pursuing a training contract in one of the most competitive industries imaginable. There are moments when that reality feels heavy, especially when LinkedIn timelines move faster than your own life seems to.
But recently, I started wondering: what if I’ve been curating the wrong museum?
Because the truth is, my fear of failure has shaped more of my life than failure itself ever has.
Perfectionism taught me that mistakes were dangerous. That rejection meant inadequacy. So sometimes I delayed important tasks until they became urgent because procrastination felt safer than trying wholeheartedly and still failing. If I never fully tried, I could protect the illusion that maybe I could have succeeded.
But that mindset hides something important. Progress is rarely dramatic enough to feel like success while you’re living through it.
So here is the museum I forgot to build.
The museum of successes.
A room dedicated to moving from Italy to the UK and learning English in seven months so I could sit my GCSEs alongside everyone else.
Another room for graduating with a First-Class degree as a first-generation student and the first person in my family to go to university at all.
And maybe the most overlooked exhibit: this year’s application cycle.
Because for the first time, I approached the training contract process seriously and consistently. I focused less on perfection and more on quantity, momentum, and resilience. I submitted over 20 applications. I earned two assessment centres.
Objectively, that is progress.
Not fantasy. Not motivational talk. Data.
Data that says I am not stagnant.
Data that says persistence compounds.
I also completed four Direct Training Contract applications this cycle, and for once, I am learning to detach effort from outcome. Whether they convert or not, I know I approached them differently. More proactively. Less consumed by fear.
The biggest lesson this journey is teaching me is surprisingly simple:
Think less. Do more.
Not because preparation does not matter, but because overthinking has never submitted an application for me. Fear has never created opportunities. Rejection avoidance has never moved my life forward. Action has, I will continue applying for my remaining DTC applications then take a short break, maybe a holiday to recharge and get ready for the next application cycle.
