Personal Statement

“Practice makes perfect”. It’s a common saying that most of us will have heard at some
point or another. While it’s an immensely common saying I believe it has a fatal flaw. That being
the use of the word “perfect”. This thought of perfection limits imagination, and eliminates the
opportunity for improvement. If people like entrepreneurs, athletes, or innovators believed that
perfection could be achieved then the human race would be nowhere near as advanced as we are
now.

If there weren’t people who believed that nothing is perfect and improvements could
always be made, many of the advances and innovations that we enjoy today may never have
existed. This is a concept that I have taken to heart and done my best to try and apply to my life.
I strive to erase the word perfect from my vocabulary and constantly be open to constructive
criticism, and always look at my work with a skeptical eye.

Throughout my life there have been many times where I have dedicated dozens of hours
every week or years of my life practicing a single sport or task. However despite these years of
practice I refused to believe that anything I did or have done could be perfect. The most obvious
example of this in my mind is hockey. I have played hockey almost my entire life. I started
skating at three years old and have spent the last 18 years practicing and playing hockey. At one
point during high school I was spending 20 hours a week on the ice with another 20–25 hours in
the gym training and practicing. But despite all of this practice I never allowed myself to become
content with the level that I was currently at.

I started out just like anyone else learning the ropes and the basic skills necessary to be
able to call myself a hockey player. Once I moved to Canada I decided to try my luck by trying
out for a competitive hockey team. My first tryout I ended up in A level hockey. The second out
of four levels. I was happy with this result but not content. I needed to improve, to find where I
was lacking and practice and work towards not perfection, but improvement. The next year I was
chosen for the AA team. The second highest of the four levels. Again I was happy but not
content. I needed to be better, to improve and learn. After attending training camps and playing
with players at the highest level of hockey I was able to play with, I again was chosen for the AA
team but also was able to play with players at the AAA level, the highest possible level for a high
schooler.

This progressive and steady improvement is something that has become a staple in my
life. I was able to apply it to another part of my life when I joined a competitive gaming team. At
first I was surrounded by people content with the bare minimum required to be a part of a
“competitive” team. However this was not enough for me. I needed to challenge myself, to
surround myself with people who thought the same way that I did. That saw bringing up people’s
mistakes and making us aware of them not as mean-spirited remarks meant to embarrass or
shame us but to make everyone aware of potential improvement. I was able to find a group who
were able to view criticism as what it was. A way to improve and bring the whole group up.
Through this rejection of perfection and environment of constructive criticism that team
and I were able to reach a spot as the 26th ranked team in the U.S. We were able to maintain and
improve on this position over 2 years until the time where I was unable to maintain the weekly
load due to my schooling.

However the lessons I learned from my time in both the sporting and competitive gaming
world have stayed with me. I am taking advantage of these experiences and lessons to shape a
future that I can be proud of. The same lessons I used to improve and learn from competitive
gaming can be easily applied to school and employment. Seeing feedback and wrong answers
while sometimes disappointing can always be used to improve. Viewing criticism and errors as
lessons has been a huge driving force behind my success in my education. My mistakes always
stick in my mind longer than my success. Not as embarrassment but as a reminder of how to
improve on the next try, the next iteration.

Learning takes time, and most importantly failure. Fear of failure will almost always
cause more regret than the failure itself. Failure is the best teacher and those who refuse to learn
from the best are those who will fall behind in an innovative world. As an innovator I cannot
refuse the immense amount of knowledge that comes from failure. All of the experiences in my
life have worked to teach me how to be who I am now. All I can do now is to dive into my future
with the experience I have and work to ensure that I never become content with perceived
“perfection”. Everything can be improved, especially myself. As a future innovator once said,
“Practice makes better”