Going around The Buoy again

I was intending to put this post off until I had received a full debrief of my performance on the Maritime Leadership Exercise...but...its been a slow news week so the fact of the matter is that I've failed and subsequently been back-termed.  This means I'll undertake the "Conqueror" package; a three week intensive leadership course designed to bring my leadership abilities up to scratch before rejoining a new division.
  Now don't worry, this isn't going to a be few hundred word rant about how it sucks to be told that you're not good enough, that you'll have to leave your mates behind and won't be passing out with the same people you arrived with.  No I'm not bitter about this, seriously, I'm just listing the amount of depressing things that I COULD be talking about in order to give you some perspective on what I am going to be talking about this week; the opportunities that failure unwittingly brings us.
  Here's an irremovable fact of life; we all get told that we've failed at something at least once.  However, it is not failing at something that defines who we are, but rather the way in which we deal with that failure which determines the kind of person we become.  It is at times of failure that people's true characters come to the forefront.  A defeatist will tell you that it is the end of everything, and that there is no point in continuing because they will never be good enough.  An arrogant person will seek explanations as to how THEY of all people could POSSIBLY have failed, and then more than likely reject those reasons when they are told that it was something to do with them.
  Personally, I like to look upon failure as an opportunity.
  When I say this, I don't mean as an opportunity to just give up and start on something else in life with a clean slate, but rather an opportunity to find out what you did that led to failure and work to put that fault to rights to ensure that it does not happen again.  Naturally, this approach to failure is helped by the fact that the Navy provides me with the opportunity to improve; quite simply if they didn't want me they would have simply asked me to leave rather than giving me a second chance with "Conqueror".
  This is however, a game of two halves.  "Conqueror" will only work if you approach it with an open mind knowing that there is something about you that you need to improve.  If you approach it believing that you do not need it then the chances are that you've wasted your opportunity and can standby for a very unceremonious dumping on your arse.  So I will take this opportunity happily, mostly because it opens with week's Adventurous Training in Germany...failure never tasted so sweet!