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perhaps, because he actually had better skills or better connections?
Sometimes we lose out on things we really want because someone knew someone who
knew someone who helped your rival gain the inside advantage. You can call it “rotten luck,”
or you can identify it as a need for better networking or more marketable job skills.
It helps if you can find some humor in your situation. Although he had every right to
cry “poor me” a hundred times over, actor George Lopez Choose to transform his traumatic
childhood experiences into a television laugh track. In the process, he learned the power of self-
discovery, resilience, and forgiveness. Although he is the creator and main character in a
successful sitcom, his successful ratings are based on the painful reality of a failed childhood
from which he is still recovering.
Regardless of the shape and form they take, failures can – and often do – feel like the
end of the world. Most failures, however, are temporary setbacks rather than career enders. The
key is to be able to overcome the blow to your ego, which almost always occurs, so that you
can learn the lessons failure can teach. Invariably, one of these lessons involves humility. No
matter how high you climb, you’ll always make mistakes. Owning up to those mistakes is part
of the process of career growth.
1. What is your experience with failure so far?
2. Are you afraid to fail?
3. Does a fear of failure ever prevent you from trying new things?
4. If you weren’t afraid of failing, what would you do (or try to do)?
5. When you were growing up, how did your parents handle your mistakes?
6. As a youngster, were you overly critical of your own mistakes? If yes, do you
know why?
7. Do you have a low opinion of your own abilities?
8. Do you suffer from low self- esteem?
9. Describe your biggest career failure.
10. Do you know why the failure occurred?
11. Is there anything you could have done to prevent yourself from failing?
12. Do you consider yourself a perfectionist?
13. Do you know the difference between a small mistake and a big one?
14. Do you have a tendency to take yourself too seriously?
15. Can you think of a time in your life when you learned something important from
failure that prevented you from making a similar mistake again?

Task 3. Writing
You are working in a local tourist office. You have to write a report for your manager
comparing two very different restaurants in your area. Say what each center is like, compare
their facilities and comment on their particular good or bad points as tourist attractions.
Answer the following questions using your imagination.
1) What’s the name of your manager?
2) What’s the name of the first restaurant?
3) What is it like? (modern, old-fashioned, large, cozy, etc.)
4) What kind of facilities does it provide?
5) How popular is it with tourists? Why?
6) What’s the name of the second restaurant?
7) What is it like? Remember it must be very different from the first one.
8) What kind of facilities does it provide?
9) How popular is it with tourists? Why?

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