An economic shock is an event that was neither planned nor foreseen

As a result, it causes unexpected changes to the economy

(Deshapriya Nanayakkara)

No experience is a cause of success or failure. We do not suffer from the shock of our experiences, so-called trauma - but we make out of them just what suits our purposes.

Types of shock:

1. Temporary shocks,  such as a terrorist attack, or a one-off change in a commodity price, like a rise in wheat prices, which quickly return to the ‘normal’, long run trend.
2. Permanent shocks,  such as an oil shock, which permanently alters the market for motor vehicles. Some economists argue that the financial crisis of 2008-09, and the resultant impact on the motor industry, will kick start a more carbon neutral approach to vehicle design.
3. Policy induced shocks,  such as reducing interest rates or increasing the money supply too quickly, creating an inflationary shock.
4. Asymmetric shocks, which are those affecting one region or one industry more severely than another. For example, the collapse of the Argentinean peso on the 1990s affected Spain more than the rest of Europe.
5. Symmetric shocks, which are shocks which affect all regions or industries in the same way.
6. Financial shocks, which are those starting in the financial markets, such as a sudden change in the exchange rate, or the collapse of a major credit bank. See also: Banking crisis.
7. Supply side shocks, which may be related to costs, such as a sudden increase in commodity prices, or related to changes in physical supply, such as labour strikes, or crop failures.
8. Demand side shocks, which are sudden changes affecting aggregate demand (AD), such as a collapse in consumer confidence leading to a fall in household spending, or a sudden fall in house prices creating a negative wealth effect.                       

If you think about it, these “shocks” are like shortcuts. There are a lot of people (and quotes) which insist that there are no shortcuts (ex. there is no elevator to success, you have to take the stairs) but these shock moments are like shortcuts. They are shortcuts because they include condensed experience and high risk.

As a note, you can see that I don't necessarily describe a successful experience here, since we mainly evaluate the experience of a shock, rather than the result.