Nobody wants to fail. Failure is soul-crushing and awfully disappointing. But Inamandla Gumede picked herself up time after time, four times, in fact, and has proven that failure isn’t the end but can be a stepping stone to greater achievements.
Durban, South Africa (27 May 2025) – Life’s highs, lows; achievements and growing pains come in waves. And as much as many of us may favour the wins over the losses, there is so much to admire about a person who can pick themselves up from a dark place of defeat and momentary failure, to go on to push forward and come out better than before.
Sharing her personal testimony of overcoming failure was recent Master’s graduate, Inamandla Saphiwokuhle Gumede.
In a raw and real Facebook post, Inamandla opened up about the devastation of not finding her name and details in the newspaper when matric results were results were released back in January 2014.
“I felt ashamed, embarrassed and disappointed. Mostly, I was in disbelief! I never considered myself to be below average, as far as I’m concerned, I was a smart girl,” Inamandla shared.
Her takeaway from that emotionally gutting experience was that when you fall, you have two options: to either stay down or get up.
“I chose to get up!
“Now what I wasn’t prepared for was how long it would take me to get up,” she admitted.
Inamandla went on to upgrade her matric not once, not twice, not even three times, but four times, all in an effort to achieve her desired results; a challenging yet worthwhile journey to getting back on track with her studies and reclaiming her future.
“When I finally got my breakthrough in 2019, I worked HARD!!!
“Today, a journey that began with constant failure is a journey that has ended with a master’s graduate!! Me! Inamandla Saphiwokuhle Gumede, I HAVE A MASTER’S DEGREE,” exclaimed a proud Inamandla.
Her story speaks of the reality of delays and detoured paths to achieving some of the dreams we long to desperately achieve, but it also speaks to how, with the right amount of perseverance, those dreams are not just attainable but can even be exceeded!
Sources: Inamandla Saphiwokuhle Gumede
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