A few weeks ago, we posted a TED Talk about “Grit”—the stuff that keeps pushing us to do the stuff we want to do. Last week I read an article from The Brilliant Report (a great source for discussions on learning) titled When to let learners struggle which talks about a study published in the Journal of Learning Sciences regarding the importance of failure throughout the learning process. Adults will encounter countless “failures” throughout their professional careers. By teaching young adults how to critically look at difficult situations and guiding them towards developing successful solutions, they’ll be better able to handle uncomfortable situations as they make their way through later academic and professional careers.

Please share your thoughts and experiences with failures. Can you remember your first professional “blip”? Something that, at the time, made made you want to crawl under a rock and never come out? How did you recover and did that process help you in later situations?

Here’s a great TED talk by Angela Lee Duckworth about perseverance through failures and succeeding in school and in the workplace.

Along with a dozen other states, New York is set to increase the minimum wage on January 1st from $7.25/hr to $8.00/hr (with plans to raise to $9.00/hr by 2015). While national discussion is largely focused on a possible federal increase, on a local level, this increase will have a significant effect on thousands of New Yorkers. Since 2009, the last wage increase for the state, the cost of living in New York has steadily increased: rent stabilized apartments have risen each year, between 2.5 and 8% (depending on 1- or 2-year leases); the cost of a single ride on the subway has increased by $0.50, not counting the steep increases to unlimited cards and the addition of a fee for every new metrocard purchase; and basic grocery items continue to rise. According to the Fiscal Policy Institute, the upcoming wage increases will significantly effect on younger adults with hourly-paid jobs who clock in 20+ hours a week and don’t currently have a college degree. In addition to the overall economic boosts that come from wage increases (people putting that extra money back into the economy by way of spending), we can’t help but think that a portion of the population might use those extra funds towards either valuable skills training or higher education.

Are you one of the thousands that will be effected by this increase? Have you decided where your extra money will go?