Salesforce coding lessons for the 99%Finally, Apex tutorials for point-and-click admins! Written by a self-taught Google engineer.
Salesforce coding lessons for the 99%
The other day I was making a bunch of t-shirts and unfortunately the batch was a failure.
That’s OK though! There’s nothing wrong with failing.
A wise person once told me, You either pass, or you learn, and well, I think about that often.
These days, it can be especially tough accepting your failures. And to help you move on, I’ll be giving away FREE T-SHIRTS from my “failed” batch. I hope you wear them with your chins held high!
How to get a free “failed” t-shirt:
I know talking about your failures isn’t easy. So I guess I’ll start with mine:
Phew! A lot of that’s not easy to admit. Hopefully it’ll help other people say theirs too.
Giveaway info:
Hope you enjoy this!!
David
P.S. the shirts in this batch are failures because their logos aren’t centered. That’s it!
Way late to the game here, but I’ve failed several Salesforce certifications, bombed a couple interviews, and embarrassed myself in front of numerous clients. If I hadn’t messed up so miserably, I wouldn’t have learned how to be better.
I am an international student who sat for a kick-off meeting within a crowd, of our Salesforce UTDallas Club in January 2020. Today, post all the networking and Trailhead learnings through the year, I am now the President of the Salesforce UTDallas Student Chapter 2021.
I started from zero in Salesforce and and during the pandemic lockdown, I cleared my Salesforce Certified Admin exam. I got rejected by Salesforce and got other tons of intern rejections. Finally, today I am working as an Einstein Analytics Intern. Standing strong to take more rejections and rise high through the rollercoaster ride.
That’s rad!!! Keep it up!!!
I started learning salesforce in Feb 2017 with lot of passion, however, failed to continue when my manager turn down request to reimburse certification cost. It would have been great if I had a thought to invest my money and continued. No worries, this time I am unstoppable.
Rejected in small firm after completing my BE in computer engineering
I have always hesitated to start this journey for whatever strange reason. It’s time. life is too short to wait on what it is you want most. I have been a salesforce admin for several years. Started learning how to read the Apex and troubleshoot bugs at a high-level and I have always wanted to develop these coding skills and start my developer career. Today I am jumping on board! I have learned when you face your fears and doubt in your career, the rewards will always outweigh the hard lessons you will learn along the way. See you on the other side! Cheers!
Cheers Jeremy!
1) My life took crucial mode when couldn’t meet the expectations of
my family & Couldn’t able to achieve what I want in my life.
2) Failed to clear my 7th CA certification exams.
3) Failed to recognize my trust in people.
4) After 9-round of interview people say you are not eligible for this role.
5) Failure to not recognize betrayed given by beloved once
6) Failure to say I love you to someone I really loved.
7) There are many but here I would like to Mentioned what I learned from
failure.
a) Never give up.
b) Follow your own passion.
c) Be confident about yourself.
d) Be motivated & be positive.
e) Respect & give value to your family.
And last, but not the least. For me In this world everything thing is possible, even the word “IMPOSSIBLE” says ‘I am possible’ so believe in yourself & shoot the Goal
Thanks.
Failed Salesforce certification tests time to time. Lesson Learnt is to keep going and ignore the naysayers. In the end, it’s your mind that will succeed. Aiming for the CTA review board after a few years – i may fail but will keep trying!
I failed my Certified Salesforce Administrator exam twice before I finally succeeded. Then later at my first admin job I botched implementing lightning so hard that several users swore they’d quit if I made them switch.
I have failed as an Entrepreneur a big time, I was one of the 3 founders of a Tech support startup I was working for small company as a java developer by then I joined with them to bring up the company from scratch literally from Zero, After few months the company grew very fast meanwhile the terms between me and one of the partner was not good the reason I got another offer as a Developer from big MNC so I cant able to concentrate on the business thinking about the offer wether to accept or decline, The cold war became more serious and I just exploded after a point when they started treating me as a stranger in my own business and neglecting me in major business decisions, I came out of the business and joined the MNC I am now a Salesforce developer. I didn’t get any share from them even though they make millions, I have initially regretted the decision I made choosing a 9-5 job instead of a fortune making start-up but as of now, I feel proud to say that I am a certified salesforce developer. I make 1 tenth of what they make but still, I feel courageous and Proud for failing as a Entrepreneur
I failed to get my ‘I failed’ comment in time for the contest!!
=P
Failed to keep my 5 years of relationship, a lot of time and emotions gone for a failure.
My biggest failure was not able to save my father. I wish I was in a stage to have saved him. I miss him a lot. Whenever I think of him, it makes me regret myself. I know the contest is closed. I felt like sharing somehow when going through your blog.
Hey thanks for sharing. It means a lot buddy. All the best to you and your family.
i failed all the times in academics
i failed to get a bank job after 2 year practice
1. Failed to overcome depression while growing up in a insensitive and messy family.
2. Failed to earn friends and relations that could have worked as a support system for my life
3. Even after being exceptionally good at mathematics and science was not able to secure good rank in school and college exams
4. Participated in company’s hackathon to show my talent but din’t worked on it
5. Even after making multiple attempts to make everything alright between my siblings nothing worked out well
Thanks to all for sharing the failure stories. I realised I am not alone, there are many who have faced failures multiple times but had never given up. Hats off to all friends who have shared their stories.
This is the first time I am trying to recollect my all failures in my life. This is surely going to help me to introspect and take corrective actions.
1. I failed in 12th standard with science subjects and had to pursue humanities.
2. I failed to get into college with my favourite subjects and had to compromise with the available subjects in the college.
3. I failed to clear the several competitive exams for government job and finally decided to join any job in a private company.
4. I failed to clear the interviews in private companies and had finally approached a relative to secure a job in a private company.
5. I failed to guide my younger brother and sister to guide them for proper education and secure a decent job.
6. I failed to help my elder brother to support and succeed in business.
7. I failed to provide my parents to own a house before my father passed away.
8. I failed to help and support my wife to set up her own business
9. I failed to get a promotion in my company in the last 15 years after more than 10 attempts in clearing the company internal exams and interviews.
10. I failed in my PMP exam in 1st attempt and do not have the courage to attempt for 2nd time.
11. I have failed to save funds for higher education for my son.
12. I have failed to secure a comfortable life for my mother and my wife and son.
12. Still, I havn’t lost hope and always trying to keep my effort consistent on the fronts in life with a positive attitude. Now I am preparing for Salesforce admin certification exam and trying to forget all the failures in life and I am sure that I will clear the admin exam in 1st attempt.
Hey David,
There are multiple failures through which I’ve managed to get a lot of learning though. You and sfdc99 readers might already know my success story, but, many might not know the biggest failure I had before that aha moment!
Just before I got selected in UST Global and went to Malaysia with 11X my salary, there was a time when I lost two of the biggest things I had in my career: My degree and my job altogether!
That’s true! Just before I got the salary hike and an opportunity in Malaysia, I lost my Post graduation degree (Master of Technology from BITS Pilani) and my job all of a sudden because my degree was a Work Integrated Learning Program and we cannot continue to study without our job in this program.
I broke a company rule and I was forced to leave the company!
HR didn’t agree and all my colleagues, manager, senior management pleaded for me but HR asked me to resign forcefully even after I said I’m sorry multiple times. Due to this, I lost my degree also when I was about to get my post-grad degree in just 6 months (it was 4 years program and I had completed 3.5 years already)!
This left me and my family crying before I promised myself that I’ll make my Salesforce knowledge my power and get a job with a much higher salary because I couldn’t see my parents cry! And that’s when I began my journey towards success by joining UST Global and moving to Malaysia.
This is my failure post. Sorry, didn’t include my name earlier…
I failed to understand my father’s love for me in my young days. Now that I think about it I feel so sorry for not telling him know that I really love him and I appreciate what he have done for us.
This one hit us deep. A reminder for us to always be good to our loved ones.
T-shirt coming your way, check your email!
1. Failed high school, twice.
2. Failed graduation.
3. Failed my first C/C++ programming course.
4. Failed SF Administrator exam.
5. Failed to get an interview for Salesforce job yet.
Successes:-
1. Cleared high school in third attempt.
2. Completed graduation this year.
3. Cleared Admin and Advanced Administrator cert this year.
4. Managed to get a SF Admin role in my current company.
5. Started learning how to code.
OMG,
1. Failed to go to a good college… got two scholarships after high school 50% from congressman and 50% tuition fees from Asia Development Bank (Many thanks to both). These scholarships only covers two year courses (I took 2 year Computer Technician Diploma course) (Graduated with honor!).
2. Failed to finished my BS degree because of lack of funds when I tried to continue my two year course through school scholarship program which student will work for school and in return can study for free (I lost my scholarship in my last year after a hard drive gone missing from computer lab under my care and I couldn’t pay for it) – (my parents income is only around average of 3 USD a day and I have 3 sisters).
3. Rejected by several companies in the past not because I don’t have the skills and experience but I’m not a BS/BA degree holder. Thanks for some companies who accepted/believed in me. I’m a Filipino, currently working here in HCMC Vietnam for an American Company as Senior Software Engineer)
4. I’m 34 already and still couldn’t fund my dream to have a small business yet sustainable income from my hometown where I can hire my high school friends who weren’t able to go to college and no permanent job right now. And also donate the 25% from its net income to a charity, 25% for scholarship program. (not failed yet as I still pursuing this dream!) :)
5. Failed to go to US for a week training opportunity as my Visa denied last year!
Failed to get into good college.
Failed to learn programming.
Failed to get recruited.
Failed to be independent up to now.
Failed to get into good college several times.
Failed to get into coding.
Several failures related to school, jobs, training, exams. But in hindsight never regret any of those.
The one failure that I was just talking to other day with a friend was, if I could go back in time I would slap the face out of me and tell me “manage your finances fool”
Just virtuously saving and being stingy doesn’t cut it. You need to learn to invest young. I failed to learn to manage finances young.
I also failed to network. I realized much later on the importance of networking. But I guess, whenever you wake up, thence the morning!
1. Failed to follow my natural talent and dream of becoming a professional studio musician because I allowed anxiety to dictate my decisions.
2. Became hooked on opiates, and stole half of my mother’s pain pills after she had a major surgery. Big, huge, monster fail. She has since forgiven me, but even 10 years later, I have not forgiven myself.
3. I enrolled in pre-cal my first year of college and stopped going to class after about 4 weeks because I wasn’t getting it. I got an Incomplete for the semester instead of an F, but it was still a failure to try, a failure to push myself.
Thank you for your honesty and humility – check your email, a t-shirt is coming your way!
1.First failure is in my Hindi Exam on 7th grade
2.Failed to get in good college.
3.Failed in campus placement interview
4.Failed in CTS interview
5.2 times failed in Salesforce certification exam
6.Failed in German language test
I didn’t get the college placement, it was quite a failure as all my friends got placed in Infosys. So I moved to an IT city and start giving interviews 4 or 5 times a week and after 3 months I got my first job with the minimum wage in Capgemini.
But now I am 2 years experienced with Good knowledge of Salesforce and a good salary, looking for further opportunities.
I have failed more Salesforce exams than I have passed, and I have passed 4.
I failed to finish my degree program the first time, which led to A LOT of hard work to finish the 2nd time.
I fail at something every day, but that hasn’t yet stopped me from believing in my overall purpose to be great and provide hope to as many people as I can in my life.
1. Due to a visa issue I wasn’t able to join my dream job (during the college days) even after I got selected during the campus interview.
2. As I was unable to pay my College fee, I missed the chance to get my Bachelors degree during the Convocation even though I am a University Rank Holder. (Which I feel as the greatest lost in my life so far)
3. Fails Salesforce Certified Sales Cloud Consultant exam 3 times
Back in 2004, after 20 years in IT, I had the opportunity to work on the Salesforce platform. I was intrigued by the “clicks not code” mantra and happily jumped ship so that I could actually build applications without being sucked into the time bandit that is coding. Of course, the platform “evolved” and this old Fortran and Assembler coder has had to embrace Apex and LIghtning components. So much for making life easier.
There were/are many failures in life but for now the only thing i could think of is the “FAILURE of not finding a site like sfdc99.com till today”.
Glad that i found it today. Wishing everyone health & Success.
Hey Guys
for me start was a problem, my failure is to start anything. I was not able start or upgrade my journey in salesforce. I was not even afraid of failure. I was afraid of even attempting. Now with my inner strength I started two motives- body fit so I am fit and another motive is to become sf architect but can take too much at a time so started a baby step with sf pd II cert preparation and their is a strong make up in a mind I can fail but should be proud of at-least attempting.
Jumped in to Sales with my current company thinking I’d CRUSH IT! I did not…it crushed me instead. 6 months later and studying for ADM 201, again, for the THIRD time since I FAILED every other time to follow through and take the exam.
Didn’t get into the College i wanted for engineering
Choose the wrong course (ME)
Failed miserably in being a mechanical engineer
Have not found a job yet
Starting to learn Salesforce
I failed my first Admin 201 and felt defeated right after like I would never pass or learn the system.
Fast forward 2 years and a baby later, I kept learning Salesforce. I kept challenging myself within the system. I decided to sign up for the exam just to see where I was because I was determined to pass it. Little did I know, I underestimated all the hard work and hours that led me to pass without studying.
Losing my 2 year old sister to a drunk driver, I still remember everything; having to pull her out the car know full well she wasn’t with us anymore and having to pull her off life support.
I am so sorry for your incredibly traumatic loss. I need to tell you that you did not fail your sister. You honoured her by preventing what further damage you could, because, while it couldn’t bring her back, it gave you and your family a little more time- as you know, when you lose someone, every second you have is incredibly precious. I don’t know if you will see this message, but I needed to respond to tell you: heroism is not defined by the outcome – it is defined by the process.
Check your email, t-shirt coming your way. All the best to you, your sister, and family. Hope you’ve been able to find peace.
I applied for a STEP Intern role at Google with a referral from a googler and I had lots of hopes despite being in 1st year of college. But, as it was destined, I was rejected without an interview stating that 1st yearites are not elgible for this role. This is a failure for me and I am to make it next year.
Few of my failure:
1. Not trusting myself enough that I can code till 2 years back.
2. Inability to lose weight after having 2 babies.
3. Getting intimidated by people whom I think will overshadow me.
Thank you for your honesty!
Check your email, t-shirt coming your way!
Before discussing about my recent biggest failure that i face and only because of which i think i should win and wear this failure T-Shirt with very much proud i would say that there is no doubt that when we see failure in a positive way then it always gives us the lesson to learn something new and make us to achieve something high but it is also bitter true that failure is always the hard to accept at the time when it is happened to us or it can be heartbreaking too but the main point is that you have to be more strong enough to convert that feeling of failure into the building block for the new opportunities and that is what i did when as a teenager i faced failure and in my todays time when i get graduated and move out in the market as a fresher in the hope of getting in the industry as a Salesforce Software Developer and face failure and many more to share as everyone in his or her life has and below is my one of my recent failure of year 2019 i want to share to you David sir and your wife and all the readers too:
1- Telling you about my 3rd year of my graduation in BTech , i was the only student in my college who did something different or i should say that i came to know about #SALESFORCE technology and from my college i was the only student who tried to learn about something whose name starts with #Sales and everyone was having negative imagination even me too at that time with this word #Sales but even then i move and took the session of Salesforce. Main thing is that i had to migrate from my college to other college to learn this Salesforce technology basics and this i what i did. At scorching hot weater of june july in India i use ti mve from one campus ti another campus via bus or auto-rickshaw.
I go to other college and did 5 Days training and also came to know about the Trailblazer Community and think of to start my own Salesforce Group in my college what was seriously no doubt the big big deal for me to make this happen as in this first i have to make myself that much capable that i can make other believe and understand this technology and then make other students to motivate towards the technology whose name start with word #Sales (because i knew that this is not only upto sales but it is more then this but other students can have negative view when i tell them to do). Inspite of this i worked very hard to make this happen as i made me learn about this and side by side i did meeting with my college head department including director and dean sir of college and faculties continuously to approve my permission for organising one session and it was the time when the college was OFF for students and i use to go to college on daily basis only for this. Other then this to save time i filled out the Salesforce Student Group Leader form also so as to do the things easily and sent the mails to students in their college email ids regarding this.
Now the college were open and the day came when everything was okay with all the permissions from college side and i just only have to do the session to make my this short term goal happen, i clearly remember that date it was 13/11/2019 and it all took my 5 months ti arrange and do this all and on the session day i was waiting for all those students who filled out the form to attend the session, i was all ready with my PPT and Projector and all audio system OK and then the moment came where i face #FAILURE. It was heartbreaking day for me because after this long struggle for this day to happen there was literally no student who came into the session. I wait for the students for almost 3 hours and also talked with my head faculties but i was on the stage where i can’t do anything because i came to know that some of the students were absent and some were not interested. I was like, like speechless to me myself that i did hard struggle to do this all and no single came. So sad of me at that moment :( And this was my failure).
But then after some time i took this incident positively and didn’t lose the hope and again tried to make this session successful not today but on any other day and again i worked hard to make this happen and finally again the day came and i was again well prepared and this time it was not heartbreaking because some students came with interest and i finally took the session and from heir i started my journey as a SALESFORCE STUDENT GROUP LEADER :) I was happy because i started my journey from the stage where i was alone with no knowledge and today i am having my own Student Group. I shared this whole experience of mine in different community meetings and college sessions also and the crowd was inspired from my this failure.
This was my biggest failure according to me and i made this failure of mine the inspiration to not only me but to others also. I hope that who all will read this comment including Mr and Mrs David will learn something from this failure and can understand that the failure doesn’t come to make you weak but it comes to make you more stronger then what you today are. So take every failure in a posiive manner and more then this always believe on yourself and god. Everything will be good atlast if you don’t lose hope.
Atlast thanks to David and her wife to give this opportunity to express our failure cum success stair with you respectively. I don’t know i will win this T-Shirt from you or not but yes i feel good after expressing my failure with you and all and yeah anonymously, hahaha!!
I was hurting reading this one but felt so good seeing your comeback! Congrats – check your email for t-shirt winning info!
As I read your article and think about my failures I think – I should now see them in different light – ” learning experience”. So instead of listing failures I will list what I learnt from my failures.
1. Learnt how not to take everything easy in life – especially career – there are times when things can turn real nasty and the guilt of not doing or going that extra mile will haunt you for life
2. Learnt that once others get to see that you are not fallible they will make every attempt to show you down for that the think you failed in
3. Learnt that you should seek help. Its better to take help than fail miserably
4. Learnt that while you wish to soar heights in career, you should not lose sight of living healthy lifestyle and prioritize your family
5. Finally, everything will boil down to taking knocks, but showing up your brave face and keep pushing hard. There is no other way
Love it! Check your email, t-shirt coming your way!
Some of my fails in no particular order
1. Failed miserable with achieving my PMP certification and had to resit the exam.
2. Got the dreaded email fail email for 2 Salesforce certifications.
3. Unsuccessful job that I needed to resign after 8 months.
And finally to finish, I always remember the scene from Batman Begins: “Why Do We Fall? So We Can Learn to Pick Ourselves Up”
Get back up!!!!
OH Boy…
1. Failed to show up for an exam in ECON because I hated ECON
2. Failed to say I love you to someone I really loved.
3. Failed to buy back my childhood home so my parents did not have to sell it.
4. Failed ADM201 3 times.
5. Failed to PLAN to succeed getting ADM201 4th time.
6. So FAILED ADM201 AGAIN. Almost DISGUSTED with SALESFORCE>
7. Failed to recognize that some people take tests better than others.
8. Failed to be GRATEFUL EVERY DAY.
9. FAILED to keep my marriage together. ugggggg
10. none
BEST..The T shirt will be nice but this is a reminder that we are humans.
Thanks DAVID..I can;t wait to shake your hand.
PJ you got a t-shirt coming your way buddy, check your email! Thank you for sharing! I felt your pain!
Failed the platform dev twice now. :(
Thankfully I have taken most of my life failures as a lesson and learned from them so I do not see them as failures anymore.
I have a fun FAIL to share. Does anyone know about the “Big Deal Alert” on Opportunities?
If not, it is an out-of-the-box SF feature that sends an email to whomever you want for Opportunities that have “reached a given threshold.”
It’s bizarre little feature. It is literally, just a dedicated Workflow hanging out all by it’s lonesome under Opportunities in the Classic Setup Menu. Look it up. (Note: It’s not in LEX)
Anyway, a few years ago, I was consulting and was put on a client who had stood up Salesforce on their own and needed some help finishing the build. One day, I was doing some data cleaning for them, specifically I was uploading a few thousand opportunities from a deprecated system. Before I started, I checked the usual suspects (workflows, PBs, Triggers, etc.) to make sure my uploads wouldn’t fire anything they shouldn’t, but I didn’t know this BDA feature existed, so I didn’t think to check it.
Even better, the client (not me, the CLIENT) had it configured to fire an email alert on every opportunity greater or equal to $0.01 (that’s 1… ONE… U.S. RED PENNY) AND this “BIG” deal should fire at ANY probability level and send an email to EVERY user in the Sales department (a few dozen people).
Well… long story short, I inserted the thousand+ opportunities from the deprecated system and a few minutes later, my phone began to ring.
You guessed it… my inserts triggered this BDA and thousands of emails were being sent to everyone on the sales teams. Needless to say, my client was not very happy.
I apologized for not seeing this ridiculously stupid “one cent” booby trap that HE had set for me (not my exact apology) and I gave him some free hours to show good will over the gaff.
There was a silver lining. The client was most upset that all the sales people had gotten a convenient email list of past deals that they could easily forward to themselves and steal as Leads if/when they left the company (sidenote: it was not a very healthy work environment… very toxic and cut throat… lots of turn over). As my client was yelling this at me on the phone, I quickly checked the security settings and was able to tell my client that there was a much easier way to for them steal all that data, based on their current security model (OWDs were wide open). Sales folks could just run a report and export it. That would be a lot easier and faster than forwarding thousands of emails to themselves.
He was quiet for a few moments and then said, “they can do that?”
I said, “I’m logged in as one of your Sales people right now and am looking at a report of all opps and I see the ‘export’ button. One sec… yep the button works.”
His tone down shifted to a much more respectful volume as he asked if I might be able to fix that.
I tightened down that model for them and that made him happy. So in the end, it was a serendipitous fail.
(Oh.. and I turned off that stupid BDA.)
To this day, that has been my biggest SF FAIL, but it makes for a good story and some fun trivia to discuss with other Salesforce pros.
(Did you know about the Big Deal Alert, David?)
Didn’t know about that and you bet I’m gonna double check now ha ha ha. Thank you for sharing!
Goodness this one feels so real!! Yup, totally gonna double check this stuff from now on – had no idea!!!
Check your email, t-shirt winning info incoming! Congrats!
I love this idea.
– Failed the Salesforce admin test 4 times
– Failed Pardot exam 2 times
– BOMBED my first deployment!! Bad
– First project went sideways. Eventually got back on track
Definitely more but these are the first that come to mind.
1. I don’t understand Biology in sciences, becoming a doctor was my first failure.
2. Then moving forward with technology, i failed in getting admission in IIT (a dream of my mom)
3. Then rejected by TCS and then Nagarro.
4. Coming in the field of salesforce, rejected from lightning champ and trailhead in a box event also.
Starting from very beginning of my life, i have faced a lot of challenges but the best part is never thought of limiting my deeds. It has gave me a lot of power to face the world, move on with a new tomorrow with more power and win it. I believe that i’ll win the world one day for sure. Indeed, failures help make a successfull person
Never had failure….for me failing is when you stop trying. So till now there no stop for me…..
Failed to take a corner and put my car throw a hedge into a field. Span around in the field and ended up head lights pointing at the gate. My passenger turn to me and said “I suppose you want me to get out and open the gate!!”
One of my biggest failures/learning experiences relatively recently was my first try taking the Salesforce Administrator certification exam. I completely underestimated how much I needed to study, and didn’t pay close enough attention to the exam guide. Both of these things left woefully under-prepared. I told a number of coworkers I was taking the exam, and then had to tell them all when I was unsuccessful! I passed on my next try, and passed my next two exams on the first try, so I’d like to think I at least learned what study tactics work for me now!
What I love about this is you never stopped trying. Failure can be a springboard into success or a demise. We are equipped to handle failure but most of us don’t know that and we quit. You don’t fail until you stop trying! Thanks for sharing!
– I’ve failed to get a job in the technology I like the most and am comfortable with.
– I’ve failed to maintain good health and thereby suffering from many ailments such as asthama, spondylitis
– I’ve failed to be a better sister to my younger sister
Nevertheless, failure is the first step to success.
After a 5-round interview process for a Salesforce developer role that spanned 2 months, I failed to get an offer. I was even given a 2nd chance interview after those 5 rounds, with the same company, since my experience and Salesforce certifications were impressive, and failed then too. I even turned down a Salesforce developer gig working with a Salesforce architect mid-way, because I thought I was doing so well, and ended up getting no offer at the end :(
Yo I was hurting reading this.
Good news is at least you’re gonna get a free t-shirt outta this. Congrats!!! Check your email!
I failed to keep the promise that I made to myself to learn Apex after listening to David Lu at my first dreamforce. I started a d stopped.
Me too. Life got in the way. I’m so upset.
I overwrote all the email addresses and phone numbers on our Salesforce loan system with my own.
I was running a sandbox sanitise with dataloader.io. Did you know that if the objects are loading in while you change the connection from prod to sandbox, it finishes loading the prod objects instead? I didn’t, so ran the sanitise over the live database.
The first thing that alerted me to it was the phone calls I immediately started getting from our collections team chasing money. I instantly got that feeling in my chest, the one you get when you know you’ve done something really bad, and there’s no way to get out of it.
It wouldn’t have been a major issue if email changes hadn’t pushed down to the prod website, changing every login in the system. That made the problem much, much worse. The platform was down for the day while we put the right data back, and the developers weren’t pleased at all.
@#$% lol.
You get a t-shirt! Check your email!
I failed the Salesforce Admin Certification two times. I am disappointed
Failed my admin cert on the first go around
My biggest failure and regret was wasting 4-5 years of my time being addicted to online games..
Now I am 4-5 years behind of what I should be right now..
I’m still happy though as every time I think back of the years, I always smile and say “it was a lot of fun”!
I failed two times in Marketing Cloud Consultant Certification.
I always thought that people who fail two times in the same certification are stupid. Well, now I’m stupid people.
Welcome to the club, brutha!
T-shirt coming your way, check your email!
1.Failed to get my favourite college admission
2.Failed to get my first, second campus placement from my college
3.I am happy to what I got today after getting so many failure in my life.
4. Life is all about to find happiness
When Einstein discovery and analytics consultant exam released I took my exam immediately on the next day the pass% was 68 but I got 67.55… Failed by one wrong question during my review time change.. it’s a first failure in my 10x certification…
And I realized go with your first thought wheatear it’s right or wrong…
Rejected by Salesforce 23 times before I got a job there.
I admire your persistence!
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Failed my marriage. The biggest project of my life.
Had to re-invent myself in a different continent, on a different job, with no one that I knew next to me to support. With no university or other degrees. I was struggling with self-motivation.
Salesforce made it possible for me to restart (even tho I failed on my first test). And my ability to adapt and evolve. I got hired within a month I got my first admin certificate.
Ps. As always thanks for your inspiration, David.
Its good to know that failure is not the end.
FAIL ITS THE BEGINNING.
Wife and I have a soft spot for the love related failures. I feel for ya Andreas…
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I studied Music Education in college. Each year, you must perform in front of the faculty in a “jury” that is pass/fail. This one jury score can affect your status and get you removed from the school of music. I failed my freshman year. And my sophomore. Thankfully I was able to retake them, but I also almost failed my senior year!
To start with, Failure is directly proportional to success.
Next, Failures of the (now)popular girl jotted below :
1) Could never deliver the speech clearly during assembly time in school
2) Always managed to consistently get the 2nd rank in anything i participated (even if i was the only person participating)
4) Always failed to reach college in time, the consistent time here was 9:10am. The lectures used to start at sharp 9:00am.
5) Was placed in the last company out of the 36 companies that participated in recruitment drive.
6) Was friend zoned by the guy i liked
7) Was left behind by the guy who promised me lifetime commitment
8) Was rejected by 19 companies during my first switch
9) Two of us fell from stairs, but i broke my hand( but i am absolutely fine now :))
10) Younger guys approach me for coffee dates and i fail them!
Regards,
WhatsInName
❤
Wife and I love the love failures =P
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Not sure if I am doing for the T-shirt or just to vent out myself :-)
This dates to 2008, I was at my first job, fresh out of college. It was 4 months after working at a MNC in India, a girl fell in love with me at my work-place. Initially, it started with friendship and I had no idea when she got so attached to me. As it was start of my carrier, I was very much focused on my job as a ETL developer and I rember I had reject her asking for movie night out just so that I can learn how to code and excel in my job.
It came to a point she told me “I am selfish” and left me coz I hardly use to give her time due to my passion for growing in my carrier.
Today, I have come a long way from;
Jr. Developer to Production support analyst, to Production support Lead, to Integration Lead, to Salesforce developer, to Salesforce Solution Artichect to Manager Sales systems.
I later got to know that the girl so was much in depression (because of me rejecting her) that she even tried to commit suicide and since that day, I regret that I should have handled her feeling better rather than being so focused on my carrier.
I fell I failed miserably to the girl who love me so much when I was a fresh graduate trying to set my feet.
This is one of the failure that I reget the most almost other professional failures as this had hurt someone’s feelings!
Anyways, David sir, as always please keep up the good work of helping others that you are doing.
Your friend from Canada, I hope you remember, I had the opportunity to meet you in 2016 @ Dreamforce :-)
I wish I could attach a picture here of two of us :)
Cheers buddy =)
Check your email – t-shirt coming your way! Congrats!!
Send me that pic too!! =P
1. Failed earl on at one of my life’s passion, competitive Taekwondo sparring.
– In my first black belt tournament I got my head kicked soo hard that my headgear spun 180 degrees, I thought I would never fight again.
– My first instructor told me that since I started late (14 years old) that I would never be a great fighter because I didn’t have the natural movements of someone who started at a younger age.
– I had trained soo hard to fight at College Nationals in Puerto Rico, I had a great coach at the time and was soo confident. I lost in the first round.
– Not failure but overcoming it. Eventually won College Nationals in the blackbelt finweight division, accomplishing a major goal of winning a nationally recognized tournament.
2. Failed at Computer Science. Failed, literally failed in one of my early CS classes 201. Was considering switching out my major since it was difficult. But kept with it and eventually got my degree.
3. Failed at my first job out of college. Failed at my first job and was one of the people laid off within 2 years of getting out of school. And in a way could say that I failed at being a developer, spent 12 years as a developer but didn’t really succeed or enjoy it, so decided to get my MBA and PMP and now act as a Project Manager/Scrum Master for a great Salesforce/Apex development team.
I have failed many time when I started my career in Salesforce. Around 10-12 rejections now I am the part of MNC.i learned from rejections
My failures:
1. Failed to understand basic concepts in 10+2 standards.
2. Failed to qualify for IIT-JEE exam for engineering.
3. Struggled a lot to get good job in IT industry.
Now,
1. I am pretty much aware of all the basic concepts of 10+2.
2. Doesn’t matter from where I studied my computer science, I am happy now.
3. Having a good job with a decent package in IT industry as a Salesforce developer.
Hi David,
I failed Pardot Consultant exam twice, though the exam seems very straight forward and many of my friends have cleared it in first attempt, I failed it twice and that was very disappointing for me :(
1) Failed to get 2 Salesforce certifications
2) Failed 2 years at school
3) Failed a jump during my ski holiday this week.
4) Lost a piece of bread in my “french fondue”
I am failing as a person that I am not able to help the people who are really needed me, due to my busy life.I regret for it.
I always wanted to become a University Professor. So I started studying Political Science. Which I passed. But failed to be a Professor, because I started working in a Call Center.
Long-story-short, I made it to become an Operations Director at a Real Estate Company, which I loved. But then I got “promoted” as Marketing Director. I failed hugely (because I didn’t have any grades for that) and I also hated it. That made me re-think what I wanted for my future. And then I dived deep into my-self and rediscovered an incipient passion I had when I was a child: coding. I left it when my dad told me that I had to be good at maths for that. So, I failed in maths too.
Soooo, here I am, studying to become a certified developer, but working every day. I fail every day. I do things I don’t fully understand and deal daily with Imposter Syndrome. Which I honestly think is one of the biggest struggles we juniors, women and people who come from other professions have.
Wow, this is liberating.
Wife and I both felt this one!
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Let’s see where should I begin….4 years ago I lost myself and got addicted to meth. As a result of that it caused me to:
1. Lost my job
2. Lost my house
3. Lost my car
4. Lost my family, friends
5. Reputation
6. Pride
7. Basically everything I have ever owned. (No seriously I mean from purses, clothes, house hold items, personal items, my inherentce)
BUT now I am trying to find a job, am drug free and working on getting my life back together. All those thing I lost are replaceable, but I only have 1 life. And it’s not. I hate that it’s taken almost 4 year’s to realize it. That’s the biggest failure of all.
Thank you for your honesty and humility. Inspiring to see you pulling things together!!!!
Check your email – t-shirt coming your way!
Failed almost 45 interviews and 7 Salesforce certification.. at some point of time i really felt like its not my cup of tea. Even one day, if you remember i reached out to you over LinkedIn. I was not expecting reply back, but you did and from that day till this day i have earned 6 Salesforce Certifications.. Got permanent role in Salesforce and Double ranges status on trailhead..
Failure is not end its start to your success.
I cannot thank you enough for all the inspiration and motivation you have provide. Thanks a lot.
What a turnaround!!!! Proud of you Priya =)
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Failed multiple attempts at Siebel developer interviews before finally landing a Salesforce developer job – For over 2 years I was trying to get a good Siebel developer job when I had 4 years of total work experience. Attended more than 20 interviews over a span of 2 years and didnt crack even a single one.
Finally managed to crack a Salesforce developer interview for a service based firm which took me in for my attitude and zeal to learn – they trained me in Salesforce and made me work in Salesforce projects and now I can proudly call myself a developer (maybe not a great one – but nevertheless a Salesforce Developer).
Failing my Admin cert 3 times, because I was desperate for a job (was unemployed). Finally passed, got a great job…and turned it in to one of my greatest achievements. I started a local admin boot camp to help others learn and not fall in to the mistakes I made! It’s only a failure if you don’t learn from it.
Way to pass it on!
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I have given 10+ interviews and finally got into salesforce ecosystem…. All my friends had job I was jobeles for more than 5months but had urge to join Salesforce ecosystem only.. Went for a career fare with overconfidence by traveling 600km to a different state and failed miserably didn’t get selected in any interview. W. Recently I was into salesforce event and in The end they called me on stage and asked to brief out what happened in The event I got panicked and didn’t spk for a min also and recently I proposed someone and it was my first proposal got failed in that tooo… I lack people skills and I’m still failing at understanding people and responding properly to them…but I always take things with smile… Smile is my biggest win n. ALWAYS……
Great attitude!
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Failed the Certified Admin 3 times. It was embarrassing, humbling, and frustrating. I thought I knew so much. Fortunately, I’ve since maintained a 95% pass rate :)
With 2 years of experience under my belt I failed the Admin certification twice. Passed it the third, got a bee in my bonnet and speed through studying for the App builder then failed that one. Took those failures to get focus and stop treating these exams like a check in a box and really learn something.
Failed to take initiative to move from admin to developer track even there are many great resources ( including yours too David). Coding phobia in my subconscious mind does not allow me to take my step1 .
Failed marketing cloud email specialist exam
I just recently got rejected by the hiring committee for a Salesforce position at Google. I worked for about 4 months to prepare for this interview and to be honest it made me pretty sad that I didn’t advance. I’ll spare you the details of my onsite but let’s say I didn’t perform as well as I know I can.
Thanks for sharing your journey to becoming a Salesforce developer at Google, it’s really helped put things into perspective for me! I’ll have another shot at joining Google in 6 months so I’ll give it my all again.
If you made it to hiring committee you must have been really close. Already further than 99.9% of people. Definitely try again!
I want to connect with you on linkedin regarding your preparation for Google – https://www.linkedin.com/in/ankit-jain-%E2%98%81-72049460/
1. Gave up a goal of becoming a doctor
2. Moved some jobs more frequently
3. Failed to demonstrate more patience and compassion at work
4. Not taking my health more seriously
my biggest failure in my salesforce career is not having my Platform Developer I. I am trying but not getting it and it is a roadblock for my path up the pyramid.
My biggest failure in life is procrastination. I only failed not by losing but by not working on it every day.
I failed launching myself as a business analyst from India.Even after 6 certification (all cleared in first attempts) and multiple industry certifications – i still somehow dont find myself in the right role. Sitting at ofshore sucks and even though i know the right way, i cannot interact with end users directly and explain the real power of salesforce. Hence i have to just compromise with the patience of my onshore colleagues’ knowledge on sfdc which isnt much. So I am in a rut!
I fail everyday at being the perfect woman, doting mom and house fairy.
I fail at fitting in molds, I fail at being interested in the media circus.
I fail at learning code, yet. I intend to fail everyday until I succeed.
I failed 3 salesforce certifications. And there’ll be more.
Cheers to more failures!
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You may aware of that being and surviving as an entrepreneur is a big challenge. Started the technology services company (#1) in mid 2014 and decided to focus only on that and not getting distracted. But last year (2019) due to some temptations I have started two other business entities (#2 and #3) and invested a lot using revenue from the company #1. I was not able to concentrate on all three at the same given time which resulted in reduction of revenue and negative net income in #1, $0 sales and had to let the people go in #2 and negative net income in #3. I take these failures as great lessons at an expense. Last month, I read a message on FB which said “To be a successful entrepreneur: Starve the distractions; Feed the focus.” I have changed my mindset and I hope the year 2020 would be a successful one.
Hi David,
I hope you are doing great !
This is Malleswari working for Cisco systems as Devops engineer on Oracle applications.
I have been learning Salesforce from last 2 years and completed below 4 certifications .
1. Salesforce Admin — Passed this exam at 3rd attempt
2. Salesforce platform Develper I — Passed this exam at 2nd attempt
3. Salesforce Advanced Admin — First attempt
4. Salesforce Platform App builder — First attempt
I desperately wanted to work on Salesforce , but my resume was not getting picked up and i am not finding any internal projects with in my company.
I read your article recently about how beginners will get job in Salesforce and got inspired by that article, after that i have completed admin superset super badges and now started developer super badges.
I hope, i will get soon either Salesforce project or job .
Thank you so much for Apex academy and SF99 for tutorials and inspiring articles .
Thanks & Regards,
Malleswari.
Hi Malleswari,
Hope you are doing well. Could you please send me your resume at sundar@wilcosource.com? Have a great rest of the long weekend!
Regards,
Sundar
After 3 years of coding in Apex, I went to Destination Success in Vegas. (When I first met you David, during your speech on SF Careers) Past the Admin Cert and the app builder cert took PD I thinking I had it in the bag and failed by 1 or 2 questions. I was Heartbroken because I was an APEX dev. That made me realize there is my way and the SF way. Best practices count for a Lot.
Failed various Salesforce certs 7x’s and twice for AWS certs
I have many Failures but the Biggest was passing salesfroce developer 2 certification. I failed the exam 2 times and I took almost 2 years to complete all the superbadges. But hey It was fun.
Strongly believe in “Failures are the stepping stones for success!!
I was not from the coding or programming background and 2014 become the toughest year to choose my career as a Salesforce developer, and I was placed in complete Lightning Project where I have no previous hands-on experience but with the theoretical knowledge, as a developer, I need completely independent on designing lightning components, Apex development, deadlines and so many delays in delivering my work.
But I never give up there and used to work 10 -12 hrs a day and I did that for almost 8 months to get on track, so hard work really paid off.
Now, it is been 6 years and I strongly say I’m successful in what I’m doing right now. Currently working for an Insurance company as a Platform Lead Developer with managing a team of 5 developers and Acting as Platform release Manager.
My biggest failure was when I choose Hotel Management as my career and ended us with shattered dreams, like keeps on kicking you till you’re at the place you belong to. Finally I took admission in Bachelor or Engineering in Computer Science and then started my career in Salesforce, my decision changed my life.
Failed my Salesforce Admin exam 2 times before passing on my third attempt.
Failed not getting my degree from university, currently working going back at 49
I quit a lot due to fear of getting failed.
Joined English medium school till 8th and then got transferred to Hindi medium due to fear of my family,if I will get pass in higher secondary classes.
Joined C grade engineering college in hurry due to fear of not getting good college after a year preparation.
Drop out from CDAC in middle of course, as I got job in service based company and I was having fear that I will not be able to made into top product companies.
Failed in CAT, when tried for MBA, as I was scared about loosing my job.
But I am happy that I tried those things and I can guide people after learning from my mistakes, I was not able to get guide in my life but if I am guiding someone they will not face same failures which I faced in my life.
My biggest failure was to land my 1st Salesforce job in the US. I was desperately looking for a job after my graduation and yes it was a very stressful situation. I completed 2 Salesforce certifications and wanted Sales cloud certification very badly. But I failed in the exam and was very disappointed. However, I did not give up. I prepared for 1 more month with more positivity and efforts, guess what, I cleared and got full-time job!
1- Failed to get into a good college.
2- Struggling with what I am doing vs what I really want to do.
3- Failing to call my parents everyday.
4- Rejected in so many interviews but I am still trying.
5-Failed to follow a healthy lifestyle after multiple health issues.
6- Failed to even accept all failures so posting anonymously.
This was good it let things out with ease :) Thanks!
Hope a free t-shirt can help you embrace your failures!
Congrats! Check your email!
1- Failed to get the job I wanted, but kept saying I was available until I did in fact get it – as the candidate fell through
2 – Failed sharing and visibility certification and studied more
3 – Failed Marketing Cloud certification and studying more until I get it
4 – Failed to spend the time I should have with my family, working harder to change that.
5 – Failed to say yes to a job that would have been only a tiny stretch, that won’t happen again.
Even after getting a Master’s Degree in Educational Technology, I was still rejected for all instructional designer positions I applied for. It was discouraging, but I learned that I could still apply the principles in other non-professional areas of my life that has a bigger life impact.
My biggest failure:
Failed to score good in HSE.
Failed to have a good college
Failed to have a good friends
I believe all the professional failures are just part and parcel of our job, however the actual failures in one’s personal life are the ones that changes the individual completely.
Saying so, my biggest failure in life is my failure not to get married to someone whom I have been for more than 8+ yrs and in a fraction of second it was all gone. I never even had this thought that I might not be able to marry her as I always so positive that this won’t happen to me.
And once she is gone, I am shattered like hell and even once had the thought to commit suicide but then the thoughts of my parents stopped me to take any such folish decision,
Since then, now I am fearless I do not fear to loose anything in life and this trait has given me the courage to pursue all the challenges in life and accept all the failures with confidence and this feeling of not having the fear to loose anything actually make us more powerful to achieve our dreams.
This is the biggest learning that changed me a person came from the biggest failure in my life
The phoenix rising!!!
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My biggest failures:
Failed my PMP Certification Exam 3 times
Have not passed my Practice Salesforce Admin Exam with 100%
I will not give up….I am volunteering for a Non Profit for real life experience.
I failed to get into my masters for psychology. Instead I failed to immediately find my niche. Eventually I did life admin, then life coaching, then I became a chef and finally at 44 I changed careers (after failing my admin very 2x) and have a job that I love paying me a salary that I’m happy with!
1. I failed to grow where I was planted. My boss at the time stopped the project and wanted me to configure Lightning on my own. I was still a rookie and didn’t reach out for help. Went for the shiny object and went to be a consultant to find out it was only end user work.
2. I get too involved in work that I haven’t completed my college degree yet.
3. Got out of the military because I was bored with the job I was doing. Got too easy (mastered) and I’ve should’ve ask for what’s next.
1. Failed to get a place at Uni because l didnt prepare enough and was too sure of myself
2. Failed my motorcycle license exam the first time. Second time l was determined l will PASS and did
3. Failed my new years resolution (each year) to go to the gym 2ce a week !
4. Failed my first salesforce cert but since then l got extra one done
Not all is bad !
Hi David,
Yours is definitely an inspiring story but realistic and thus by being so, we know is achievable by every single one of us.
Hi David, this is an interesting post and I feel it is best to learn from failures. Posting my personal story below..
I used to drive for 10+ years in India, in busy Mumbai traffic and after moving to New Jersey, came to know that I had to give a written test to get a license.
I was so arrogant of the fact that I had driven for so many years in India, I thought I will just walk into the DMV and give the exam without any preparation.
I failed that license test so badly – because there were a lot of questions with terminologies that I did not understand. Like I did not know what is a curb and there were like 5 questions asking me how far to park from the curb :).
As expected I failed, but then I went back, prepared a lot and then cleared it easily in my next attempt. Learnt a big lesson to not be arrogant and take anything for granted.
What a lesson! I feel ya!
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Failed to apply for a promotion I definitely deserved
Failed to vigilantly make sure my people had what they needed to be successful (work and other)
Failed to finish an entire album after getting everyone to do several days of recording
I tried to pay off the registrar when short one credit for graduation but he/she had a back injury and met over the phone last minute
I failed to impress Chuck Wollerys daughter
I failed my advanced admin exam twice but I don’t believe they were failures just learning experiences.
Failed to learn programming in the first attempt. I took around 2 years to get started with it. And now I know 6 Programming Languages.
As soon as I clear the Administrator exam , I book App builder exam thinking it’s almost same . But I failed it being over confident.
David, it takes lot of courage to admit your failures. Kudos to you!!!
1. I failed as a project manager executing my first project. We lost the client despite putting ton of hard-work.
2. I keep failing as a father when I lose patience with my kids. But, I keep getting better at it. It does not happen a lot these days.
Oh man I’m gonna remember this one next time I lose my patience too!
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I would say my biggest failure is that I never got to finish college, because I had to move to another country (from Venezuela to Argentina), even though I was only a year apart from graduating. Now I’m working as a Salesforce consultant and hopefully I’ll find the time to start college again.
My biggest failure were
1.- remove the system administrator profile from a community.
2.- set up the IP range for the system administrator profile, and I was outside the IP range
Dropped out of college twice
Thought I could get ready for a certification in a week and failed badly
Failed at my first marriage in the military! Lessons learned. Met my current wife after getting out of the military and now have 3 kids with a happy marriage. :D
Hi David, great post! Thanks!
I failed many times in my professional career and in my personal life too, but to follow the spirit of your great post I think that after my 30 years of IT career my principal failure was:
1 – I don’t complete my Graduation just because I stated to work in IT with 18 years old and after this by my full dedication to the work I don’t have more time to finish my studies.
2 – Just because I don’t have a Graduation, I lose some interested Jobs along my life, but I’m here…
3 – I’ve many Certifications (Novell, IBM, Microsoft, Cisco), just because I invested on this because the no Graduate status and when I applied to my First Salesforce Certification, Admin, I failed 3 times!
So the life it’s a “Failure Lab” and I’m very happy to have the opportunity to to never give up and move on always!
Best Regards
I failed in my engineering twice… But still I m an engineer.
Failed more than 25 of the Government exams after graduation…. Still i am earning.
Failed in first love… But finaly mine is love marriage.
Failed to provide jobs for others…. But still people asking my help.
Didn’t completely test a Facebook Ads integration between HubSpot and SFDC. Didn’t notice that customer’s Leads were sitting in HubSpot not getting assigned in SFDC for 15 DAYS. Thankfully this was quickly resolved and had to eat crow via our customer, but all in all helped identify some daily data checks I still run till this day.
Biggest failure is even though I am a salesforce Developer, I could not answere what are profiles when asked?
I’ve a big list of failures:
1. Failed in 4th standard
2. Failed in 11th standard
3. Failed in 3rd year of my college
4. Failed in PMT (Pre Medical Test) India (My father wanted me to become a doctor )
5. Failed in my first love
6. Failed twice to get married with my second love because of family issues (3rd time was successful )
7. Rejected in 20+ interviews in my initial level to get my first job
8. Fired once from a job
9. Failed to run my first business with a partner
10. Failed so many times to complete my first book
There are 2 failures in my life
1. When I almost flunked in my high school ( after being a good student throughout) and my real hardship started when I realised no undergrad college in my city was willing to take me due my low grades. I get goosebumps when I try to remember that phase.
2. The other one actually is fear of not being a good developer . I hope I would overcome this fear very soon :)
1. I failed to get admission to Engineering college, finally took admission to commerce college.
2. I failed to get first class in my Bachelor’s degree, I got 59.50%, it was really a bad luck.
3. I failed to get admission to MBA college, then I got admission to MPM.
4. I failed to get HR position in reputed organization because I didn’t have enough experience. After they appointed me in operations and within 9 months they transferred me to HR dept as a HR executive.
5. I failed to get a job in other country as my husband deputed there we left our country. I got rejections from every organisation where I applied. But then I completed my 2 Salesforce certifications without single failure within 4 months.
For me every failure brings awesome opportunity that I never expected.
I finished my bachelor’s and master’s IT degree without much focus on my IT career, because I was focused to be very good in Kendo, some martial art. So I just trained a lot. That was my priority.
Now my former colleagues have well formed careers, good jobs and high salaries. Sometimes I feel that I failed my career when I see them.
For six months, I started a fresh path trying to discover Salesforce. I hope I will fix my career with that :)
One of my greatest failures was not taking the CFP exam. All of my schooling and experience were focused on finance and investments. The CFP would have been the final accreditation to make me “complete.” This failure turned out to be a blessing because it was then that I was introduced to the exciting world of Salesforce. #NoRegrets
1. I failed to get addmission to Engineering college and that’s why I took admission to commerce college.
2. I failed to get first class in my Bachelor’s degree, I got 59.50%. It was really a bad luck for me.
3. I failed to get admission to MBA, but later I got admission to MPM.
4. I got rejected and failed to get HR position in reputed organization because I don’t have enough experience. Later they appointed me in operations and within 9 months I got transferred to HR dept and became HR executive.
5. I failed to get a job in other country when I left our country because my husband has been deputed there. I got rejections from every organisation where I applied. But after that I successfully completed my 2 Salesforce certifications without single failure within 4 months.
Hey David,
First of all, I was failed in my father’s expectation that i will become an IAS or some officer.
I was a topper in my class, in my complete school life but still not got admission in a good college.
Failed in almost 15-16 interviews, then selected in StartUp, I started my career in Salesforce Ecosystem.
In an accident, my family member the one whom I loved the most, lost neural control on his legs and he’s now not able to walk. Actually hospitals at that time demanded a very high fee for the neural operations and we were not in the situation to afford that fees. I think that was my biggest failure that I can count in my whole life. I have heard that happiness is nowhere related to money but still, it plays an important role in our lives.
I was failed to provide financial support to my family at that time. But one day he will walk on his own legs and that’s my promise.
Go fulfill it man!
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biggest failure is not completing bachelors degree, which I am regretting everyday in my life since 19 years. I am in 40, still I feel the same, and my self esteem is very low because of my educational qualifications. I am not comfortable talking to the people who are highly educated than me. am I ever going to complete my college degree? dont know. I write meaningful code salesforce but are they companies take me without degree? dont know. are the companies will give me meaningful salary? dont know. but still I am kind of happy what I have. but it would have been wonderful if I had completed my bachelor’s degree. Thank you for allow me to share my failures. I am just not writing this for t shirt, it is just that want to share my heart heavyness.
This is so honest. Some things keep dragging us down for decades huh! I know the feeling.
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1. Got a 0.0 on a final exam where it dropped me from my major when I was in college
2. Failed 50% of all Salesforce certs I’ve ever taken
3. Applied to Salesforce 10 times and never got a callback for any of these
4. Every time I bake, I burn whatever it is
5. Failed every swim test I’ve ever taken
Laughed at this one, sorry lol.
Everytime I BBQ it’s the same story for me.
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Failed to get first Salesforce Job
I failed my law studies and IT studies. Ultimately this led me to cross paths with Salesforce I haven’t regretted it since.
I need to understand Salesforce Administration now. Because I have been rejected many times I know things exist but I wasn’t able to make them understand. That’s my goal 2020 to understand Salesforce and it’s purpose to deliver a smooth project.
Every day I am failing to keep work life Balance.
I am failing to be happy.
I am failing each and everyday in maintaining the work life balance from the day I got my first job.
Totally I failed to be happy.
I failed to clear math’s exam in my 12th standard.
Failed to join Salesforce partner company due to family commitments though I Worked really hard to get into Salesforce !
Failure can be option, but giving up is not !!
Again working hard to achieve my goal
My first ever new org Salesforce implementation as a consultant FAILED! Users failed to adopt it and it was completely turned off within 3 months.
So many things I had failed to do… so many learnings… the main one was not taking the users on the journey and failing to listen to their requirements…. See why I cannot put my name to this in public?!
1. Failed in Einstein Analytics exam in the first attempt.
2. Failed to get the USA VISA for Salesforce trailbalzer event.
3. Failed to get the India VISA on time to attend TrailheaDX.
4. Failed to pass my first trial for the two wheelers.
5. Still failing to impress the peoples to survive even with the knowledge.
More than actually failing it’s the fear of failure that pulls us down .
1) I was passionate about joining the defence airforce ( pilot ) attempted all India enterance exam repeatedly twice a year for 3 years .
My heart broke each time when my score in general section was just below the cut off by 0.5-2 marks while technical section scoring above 95%.
2)I have been self doubting myself for a very long time . Due to my own fear I failed interview at Deloitte 4 times , a company which I considered as dream job . Soon I realised ,gained back my confidence and landed 2 offers with good package.
3)Another instance was failing sales cloud certification twice.
4) Failed to fall in love , because of being very cautious in life to not do any mistake.
I miss those sweet moments which could have been in my memory if I had followed my heart and not society norms.
Thank you for sharing. Fear is so powerful!
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More than actually failing it’s the fear of failure that pulls us down .
1) I was passionate about joining the defence airforce ( pilot ) attempted all India enterance exam repeatedly twice a year for 3 years .
My heart broke each time when my score in general section was just below the cut off by 0.5-2 marks while technical section scoring above 95%.
2)I have been self doubting myself for a very long time . Due to my own fear I failed interview at Deloitte 4 times , a company which I considered as dream job . Soon I realised ,gained back my confidence and landed 2 offers with good package.
3)Another instance was failing sales cloud certification twice.
4) Failed to fall in love , because of being very cautious in life to not do any mistake.
I miss those sweet moments which could have been in my memory if I had followed my heart and not society norms.
I’ve failed to pass my driving licence. It was at the begining of summer 1998.
I planned to go in vacation and drive my friends => double failed this summer
I passed again my driving licence at the end of summer and it was a success this time.
I tried some of the quizlet exams for the sharing and visibility designer exams and noticed alot of similar questions on the exam. I finished the whole exam in 20 minutes and for 1 or 2 questions, I purposely chose the wrong option because it kind of looked too obvious to get 100% in 20 minutes. I failed by 1 question, 2% … embarassing!
He he he he he =)
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I failed to pass my first Admin certification exam
I have completely failed to fail completely :)
Failed in SCJP (Java Certification) .
It took 2 yrs for me to get the good job after my graduation.
Resigned from multiple company after graduation due to anxiety / depression due to lack of self confidence, Knowledge, corporate etiquette and less pay (90 USD per months) during 2013, 2014.
Failed in almost 25 interview.
I took almost 1 year to understand trigger completely in my salesforce Dev career.
Now planing to clear Salesforce Certified technical Architect (CTA – I hope i will get it soon.). Now 4x Certified Developer working in Big 4.
Yo love that humility and drive!
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When I was in college, I had to do the simultaneous interpretation at a large conference. I did so badly and got fired on the spot after 3 minutes.
Short but sweet (and painful). Thank you for sharing at your own expense!!
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I failed to get a bonus and hike, this would be my first hike and bonus of my career. in return, I received a statement from my VP that for the last year I did nothing in the office.
So good so far I conducted Salesforce Admin classes in my company for non-salesforce people, I learned VScode, Provar, Apex(in progress), Testing. After doing all this my management is not happy from me “THIS IS MY BIGGEST FAILURE”
I failed to clear an interview which would giving me an opportunity to go to Australia.. From than i am failed to get any other opportunities to travel onsite..
Failed at preparing for my first talk at an agile conference in English. I was surrounded by experienced agile coaches so it was more evident my lack of practice.
Failed at using flow for the first time. I used loops and hit limits that the admin found on production (!). This was a bit embarrassing.
My biggest failure though is that i never told my father how proud I was of him. I have been working on expressing emotions since then and now I am better at it.
This is too real !
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Hi I am “Farukh Haider Shaikh”,
Let’s start with my introduction first.
I am “Farukh Haider Shaikh” and I am working as a Salesforce developer. I am having 4 + years of experience. I believe in sharing knowledge, the more you share the more you learn. I am the owner of the blog sfdc-lightningdotcom(A Blog On Salesforce).
So way back when I started to look for a job change I was rejected from the interview process due to lack of knowledge and I accepted it as I was knowing this was not the best which I wanted to give.
After getting inspired by David story and blog, I started my blog “sfdc-lightningdotcom(A Blog On Salesforce)” where I started providing tips and tricks to learners along with interview question series. In this way, It not only help the learners but also helped me to achieve the position where I always wanted to be. Today my blog ranks very well in google and is helping a lot of learners out there.
It was 2008 and I was working in a company that was using Microsoft Access databases masively. One (bad) day I was cleaning records and duplicated databases…I deleted the main customers database accidentally in the server…our last backup happened one week before. My blood pressure started pumping to my head and I panicked!. Some mo ths later I started learning Salesforce Sales Cloud and never touched an Access ever ever ever again.
My blood pressure is up too reading this one!
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test
Failed on a deployment wrong deleting 4000 opportunities, after that we spent one day with the recicle bin
When i was to seek admission for my higher secondary admission in semi-government school in 2007, my parents were warned that your boy will be spoiled one post school completion as this school doesn’t have good repo in the town.
Still, I persisted and took admission and at end of my higher secondary result in 2009, I was first rank holder in my district with 91%.
My parents were proud that i proved all those people wrong.
And greater part was, even those shouting people got their children enrolled in the same school. :)
Failed in almost 20 Interviews during college ,but i never quit,
even after college finished ,Kept giving the interview.
Despite being a graduate joined a call centre, to earn bread for family.
Got a job in IT industry ,came across salesforce and life changed.
Fast forward 2 years , working in big 4 as a consultant , Salesforce lightning champion.
Mentoring others.
– Failed to get a job in Salesforce company 6 times now. Looks like this is going in your direction of Google attempts (9 times). Not giving up though.
– Failed to say “Sorry” to keep the relationship with my cousin. (After many years I did and now maintaining it with my best efforts).
– Failed SF developer certification on the first attempt. Attempted within 5 months of being in Salesforce ecosystem. (Now I got 6 certifications)
I failed to study computer science in 11 th and 12 th despite my huge interest due to low percentage in 10th
I failed to clear tcs interview twice
I failed in interview with Amazon
I failed in interview with Salesforce
I failed in interview with Google
The success is the level of failure ( from tcs to Google).
Got my first job after being rejected by more than 15 Companies, good thing is i took them as a steps to succeed.
Failed first Salesforce certification exam.
Failed to keep promise with my GF due to family reasons, now she is married to other guy.
Failed in writing my first trigger on Inventory Management Project during my college Internship. Now after watching your sessions on Apex Triggers I’m quite confident in writing triggers. You’re my motivation. This is not for the T-Shirt but for those who motivate students to pursue their careers by lending a helping hand or motivating them to do new stuffs in the start! Thank you David Liu!
Failed to speak properly French after trying to do so on multiple occasions and being married to a french woman, total failure!
Not taking anything in life seriously until my late 20’s.
I spent at least the first 10 years of my working life taking money and jobs for granted, spending every penny I earned without thinking towards the future, switching from job to job, having no real direction.
Fortunately I was given a great opportunity and landed a Salesforce admin role, and I couldn’t be more grateful! Salesforce has allowed me to focus on myself and my career, always aiming higher by studying for credentials (2 so far, hoping to take my 3rd in a few months) and having a real structure and purpose to my life!
1:- Failed in the 4th Grade , teachers told he is not fit to sit in the 4th Grade. Studied the same class and never failed in schooling.
2:- Failed the First Salesforce Certification and now have 5 Certifications.
3:- Failure makes you stronger and will make you more confident to not make the same mistake again.
FAILED To Get Job In IT industry For Around 7 Years
FAILED In salesforce PD 1 Exam Almost 2 Times NOT YET pass
My biggest fear is the “fear of getting failed” and subsequently what impression it would lay down about me.
Failed to get hire by a Salesforce Platinum Partner. Initially told that I needed more Sales Cloud and Service Cloud implementation projects under my belt. However, I found out from another recruiter that he was told that I had the most Salesforce experience out of all the candidates that made it to the final round.
My biggest failure to date was failing to win a sfdc99 tshirt in previous giveaways!!
Sometimes these failures were due to not applying in the first place :}
Failed at my first startup…getting myself ready for the second one
I have been a similar case of failures spanning 30 years till date. Here are few of them
1) Failed to get to a good college due to high competition in India. Although i got decent scores for higher education ,but those were still less as others around the country had better score than mine and seats were limited.
2) Failed to get job in my major field of study during college. I was a student of electrical engineering , but failed to get a job in same stream and landed into IT industry which i feel now was actually being lucky for me
3) Failed my first salesforce certification. Which was admin 201 exam. And it actually helped me understand the importance of thourough study. I cleared 18 till now out of which 3 had been reattempts
4) Failed to get married to my girlfreind. Again this was due to my fear of not speaking to my parents
5) Failed to get Tshirt from David Liu everytime i entered in any of the challenges or gibe aways
6) Failed to get a referral from David for Google Salesforce apps engineer for position in india. I still regret , i know there would have been multiple applications sent to you so mine did not find place due to high competetion
Neverthless, thanks David Sir for keeping us motivated and engaged and Thanks for being a reason for multiple developers around the world to choose salesforce as a career option by reading all the inspiring stories on your blog
Failed to get hired by Salesforce 3 times! Thankfully, 4th time was the charm!
I should provide more detail based on all the great responses!
I nearly worked for Salesforce via osmosis…I left SteelBrick 1 month to the day before its acquisition was announced to move into 3rd-party consulting. It was the right decision for me then but it’s one of those things that sits in the back of your mind, you know? “What if”
A year and a half later, I was recommended for a really interesting position that I came in 2nd place for, to a person who is still a good advocate in my network. In the end I’m glad they got it, and I went down a different path.
A few months after that I pursued a Solution Engineer role, and despite strong interest early, I was ghosted with no explanation.
About a year later was my first attempt at the Program Architect role. I made it to the final interview, but in the end I was deemed too CPQ-specific and not technically deep enough in the non-CPQ areas.
Over the next 13 months I worked on addressing those shortcomings, not specifically with the thought of reapplying, but to become a better consultant and technical resource in the same mold. However, a friend had joined and urged me to apply again, so I did. This time, I got the job, a little over a month ago now!