Let us face some facts about this so much maligned phenomenon called FAILURE. Perhaps, by studying it better, it loses its fearsome grip in our minds and we learn to appreciate it from a different angle.
Failure is defined in the dictionary as” the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective”. Therefore, we should understand that it is not a disease but an event. Like any event, it is not permanent and it leaves no lasting scar in our life, unless we dwell in it too long.
Failure is an inescapable fact of life. It occurs naturally in nature, in our daily life, just like the air we breathe. Being an inescapable phenomenon in our daily life, we cannot possibly avoid it completely; unless, of course, we choose to spend our days in constant fear of and make us prisoners of our own paranoia. Would you think that kind of existence is worth living? In that case, we may as well live with it comfortably and learn whatever lesson it can teach us.
Failure is a better teacher than success. It reminds us of our human nature. It keeps us humble with our feet firmly planted on the ground. It opens our eyes to reality and teaches us to know and appreciate who we really us. It is essential in our life because we learn much more from it than we do from success. A lot of things in life are learned from failures
In the field of science for instance, many of nature’s secrets are uncovered by the small, manageable, constant, and traceable mistakes – a long term for “laboratory experiments”. It is said that a man who never fails never make any new discovery.
We should not condemn failure because without it, the creativity process is hindered. If the teaching of failure is suppressed, we will never be able to avoid them in the future.
Failure is an
important part of success. This may sound ironic but it is true. As the famous author, Thomas J. Watson puts it:”If you want to succeed, double your failure rate”. Each failure is a step towards success. It makes us stronger to face and overcome obstacles we meet along the way. It makes us wiser in life. Every time a mistake is uncovered due to failures, it leads to the discovery of truth. Failures propel us nearer to our goal. It clears our path of the obstacles we are able to avoid due to the lessons we learned from our past failures.
Quoting from Pres. Theodore Roosevelt who said: ”It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”
Failure makes success much sweeter. Just as there are no lofty mountains if there were no deep valleys, so is success in life. The bigger the failures and insurmountable the problems we encounter on our way to our goal, the sweeter and more satisfying is the reward we reap at the end.
Looking at failure from a different angle and appreciate what it can do to our lives, we should be able to shake off much of the stigma and negative connotations associated with it. So why should be afraid of failure? It is actually an ally to our success when properly harnessed.