Crawling, trembling as a baby learns to walk,
For every time it falls, for every time it stumbles,
It learns to put forth a step firmer;
From playing hide-and-seek to playing blind man’s buff,
With every wounded elbow, with every bleeding knee,
The child unfolds ways to play it better.
We grow up hearing age old sayings like “Failure is the pillar of success” or “Failure is the stepping stone to success”, which so repeatedly form a part of any motivational speech we deliver or any inspiring article that we write. But how often do we find ourselves being able to see eye to eye with what such maxims hint at? To what extent are we optimistic enough to see the silver lining lurking behind a cloud of failure? Failure and success are two sides of the same coin
where we associate the former with defeat, rejection, disappointment and darkness while the latter with victory, acceptance, glory and illumination. Success is envisaged by all while failure is anticipated by none. Failure is frightening and creates terror in the mind. What is worse is that this fear of failure stops us from even trying. It is indeed so deep-rooted that we are pulled back from doing what we want to do; from reaching where we want to reach. History is a witness to the fact that anyone who has been able to land on success could have done it only after he had swam across failures. In other words, there is no success without failure. Now, there are two perspectives of viewing this statement. First, failure will always try to obstruct one from reaching one’s goal. Second, failure is a part and parcel of success and
every failure has a lot to contribute to the success one achieves. The former view creates anxiety and uncertainty while the latter gives birth to an opportunist perception of acknowledging the prominence of every failure on the glory of success. No successful man can ever deny the fact that with every failure that came his way, he could discover a better way to succeed.
Patience and perseverance coupled with the determined will to learn from what every single failure invites prove a milestone to success. It is easy to give up but hard holding on without letting despondency set in. This power of forbearance is a lesson which no success but only failure can impart. It was this perseverance and right attitude that enabled great people like Abraham Lincoln or Nelson Mandela survive the countless setbacks that they faced. Loss of his mother at the tender age of nine, failure in business, demise of his wife, incalculable defeats in his political career for more than a score of years, nothing could make the glimmer inside Abraham Lincoln fade and so he could eventually stand tall as the 16th President of the United States of America. Neither could twenty-seven years in the prison tear apart a single inch of the dreams that Nelson Mandela dreamt. “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work” were the words of the greatest inventor of America, Thomas Alva Edison, who could see success in every fiasco they came across. It was this hopefulness which made them keep trying and mending their work until success became inevitable. Optimism is a powerful tool that can change even what is destined and anyone who manages to remain optimistic even when he has failures one after the other thrashing him down is the one who can keep strong not just in good times but also when the going is tough. Also, we grow with every failure and we mature with every defeat. Failure gives us a clearer vision to see our own mistakes. It makes us more compassionate; gives us reasons to understand the worth of the life we live. Failure is the test that makes our loyal mates stand out among all the other fair-weather friends thereby improving our understanding of relations. Herein, reference may be made to the aftermath of the Battle of Kalinga in the life of King Ashoka. The repercussions caused by the unprecedented bloodshed were so deep that the emperor became a changed person altogether. The catastrophic battle left him plundered. He was devastated at the thought that due to his actions thousands of parents became childless, countless children orphaned and numerous women widowed. Such devastation made him embrace ahimsa and give up violence of all kinds. He became an epitome of benevolence and it is due to such reasons that annals of history suffix his name as ‘Ashoka the Great’.
Failure is, many a time, an opportunity; it is a chance to dream bigger and to aim for greater heights. There would not have been the giant Alibaba Group had Jack Ma, the tycoon, not been rejected in thirty job interviews before he thought of going for entrepreneurship. Every failure speaks. Every failure tries to convey a message and the one who is capable of keeping his eyes and ears open to it can give a better direction to his life. Only accepting failure and learning to cope with it will do no good if it is not followed by a detailed analysis of the mistakes responsible for it and an appropriate understanding of what went wrong. After being burned down to ashes in World War II in 1945, Japan, a country so small in size and so pathetically starving of natural resources, could make it to one of the world’s biggest economies. As Henry Ford had aptly stated, “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently”, it must be understood that behind every failure there is a reason, an action which was not in sync with the target that had been set to achieve. The outcome must always be compared to what was anticipated and the deviations, if any, must be carefully studied. The focus should always be placed on finding the causes of the deviations. One should strive to track down all such reasons which made the undesirable happen and bear in mind, that these should not be repeated.
Sometimes, unrealistic goal-setting might also be the reason behind a failure. Lack of proper understanding of one’s own potential overlays the way for setting goals that are too difficult for one to achieve within the specified time. Unrealistic goals are also an outcome of comparison with other people’s achievements without making sure whether their potential and circumstances are the same as that of ours. This calls for re-envisioning the goals whereby the re-defined targets are in line with our own capabilities taking into account a specified period of time and under the given circumstances. Failures make us work on our risk-taking and time managerial skills as well. These facilitate proper planning of the course of action to be carried out. Besides this, attaining emotional stability is another boon of failure. Anyone who learns and betters himself with every setback becomes so valiant and fearless that he is able to see and rise beyond such fear. He is someone who learns not to give up no matter how difficult the situation might be and is ever prepared to face any storm that comes his way.
Lastly, to be able to see the silver lining behind a defeat, one must always have the right attitude to learn and grow. Success is not the destination, it is only a by-product. One must be determined to strike while the iron is hot. Failing to achieve the target is not the real failure, surrendering ourselves to the grasp of destiny and luck is. Considering our results as the luck of the draw and worrying about what others will say if we fail are the shortest routes to failure. Profound self-belief and abundant faith in oneself drive one to success. Destiny is a matter of choice; we can create our own destiny by adding the right dose of positive thoughts and vibrations to our efforts. Such ever-flowing positivity was the biggest asset of people like Napoleon Bonaparte or Mahatma Gandhi who had the courage to script their own destiny. Swami Vivekananda beautifully explained, “Never mind these failures, these little back slidings; hold the ideal a thousand times, and if you fail a thousand times make the attempt once more.” In a nutshell, great people had great failures and every failure added an extra ounce of greatness to their personality.