To Eleanor “Penny” Akahloun, failure isn’t really failing. It’s just an excuse to learn.

Addressing a full house at the Martin Luther King, Jr., Day Annual Breakfast, Akahloun, the event’s keynote speaker and Onset native recalled a few anecdotes from key points in her career, as well as her childhood in Onset. She said tenacity and determination in the face of adversity is the hallmark of all successful people, including Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Doctor King experienced multiple failures in his dreams, yet time and time again, he was able to overcome,” Akahloun said. “He had a deep-seated belief in himself, and … he persevered.”

Akahloun was born in 1943 and raised in Onset. She is a retired diplomat who served with the U.S. State Department for 43 years. She began her career as a clerk-stenographer and eventually worked her way up the ladder to become a Foreign Service Human Resources Officer.

One of the events that shaped her as a person, Akahloun said, was the time she flunked a test that would have allowed her to advance in her career. But, instead of giving up, she just tried again, underscoring her theme of tenacity in the face of adversity.

“I said to myself, ‘Penny, why did that happen? Why did you flunk that examination?’ And the other side said, ‘Well, I wasn’t sufficiently prepared, and I got nervous,’” Akahloun said. “And the other side of me said, ‘Well, you have this potential, and let’s just try harder the next time.’”

Of course, the second time she applied for another opening in the same field, she passed it.

“This was a pivotal point in my life, because I realized that … to fail doesn’t mean it’s the end of the earth,” Akahloun said. “It just means that you have to work harder, and think about what you have done wrong. You grow from it.”

Despite her achievements, Akahloun reminded the crowd she is “the same as anyone else here … I’m just an ordinary person,” with common feelings, including discouragement.

“Sometimes, life comes along, the road gets bumpy, and we get very, very discouraged,” Akahloun said.

She also regaled the crowd with the tale of how she came to be called “Penny”: upon seeing her in the hospital, after she was born, her grandfather remarked that she was small, round, and copper-colored, “just like a penny.”

“And, so, here I am – just a little bit rounder,” Akahloun said, and laughed.

She also revealed a “big secret” to the crowd: the Hammond School, in which the breakfast was held and the Boys & Girls Club currently meets, was her old elementary school building in 1949.

“I haven’t even told [club Unit Director] Kenny [Fontes] this,” she said.

Several students from Wareham also received the Martin Luther King, Jr., Spirit Awards at the breakfast. The award is presented to students who demonstrate “character, leadership, determination, and belief in justice and equality for all.”

The students who received the awards are as follows:

• Minot Forest Elementary school student Koral Davis
• Boys & Girls Club member Jasmine Simons
• Gleason Family YMCA member Cassidy Quinn
• Upper Cape Tech student Ciarra Bulgar
• Bishop Stang High School student Kayla Michaels
• Wareham Cooperative Junior/Senior High School student Jala Yates
• Wareham High School student Jordan Phillips
• Wareham Middle School student Jasmine Black
• John W. Decas Elementary school student Chelsea Tiernan