Comment: Wambach's criteria for success

The exam assignment from the English A exam on STX from May 22, 2019, asks you to comment on Abby Wambach’s criteria for success in “Make Failure Your Fuel”.

Wambach mentions four criteria for success: “Make failure your fuel” (l. 140), “Lead from the bench” (l. 188), “Champion each other” (l. 231), and “Demand the ball” (l. 270). These criteria are inspired by her sports experience, and the language used to express them mirrors her career as a soccer player. It should be noted that Wambach recognizes that there are different areas of success in life, such as success in business, as a parent, or in life in general. Her use of sports terms is therefore a metaphor that can also be extended to these other fields.

Under the first criterion, “Make failure your fuel” (l. 140), Wambach argues that success depends on one’s ability to accept failure and use it as a resource to keep fighting harder: “…I learned that in order to become my very best – on the pitch and off – I’d need to spend my life letting the feelings and lessons of failure transform into my power.” (ll. 172-176). Through this example (and by quoting Mi...