Success
and failure are inseparable and part of everybody’s life. Isn’t it? But
normally, we are found to enjoy our successes; invite our dear ones and host
parties to celebrate it. Have you seen anybody who has celebrated his or her
failure? Mostly not. Failure and celebration? It’s beyond imagination. In
general, we find a correlation of sadness, stress, depression, accusation,
annoyance, anger etc. with failure, although it is a reality that each failure
is one more step toward success. Famous American writer Robert Harold Schuller
said something worth noting. He says that failure does not mean that you have
failed. It simply means that you have not yet succeeded. Absolutely correct.
And by the way, failure is not the opposite of success. It is part of success.
If you go through the lives of great persons who struggled very hard and
achieved great successes, you will be amazed to know that they used to
celebrate that moment of failure only to remember it well and also to remind
them time and again that they needed to work harder to achieve what they missed
the last time. Such persons are in the habit of setting a definite goal and try
more to achieve that. They do whatever they can to the best of their ability
and judgement. At times, they do miss the success bar narrowly. People around
them may think and say that they have not put the optimum efforts. Maybe the
commentators are right from their perspective, but only those who tried to
achieve the goal know well what was their level of preparation, where they
lacked or needed to do better.
This
normally happens with most of the achievers. Albert Einstein says that a person
who never made a mistake never tried anything new. So correct. Hence, instead
of feeling down or rejected or dejected, be ready with added enthusiasm for
making extra efforts to achieve the desired result. Just think about those
athletes who prepare hard for several hours daily for many weeks in order to
compete for 100, 200 or 400 meter sprint races, but at times fail to cross the
finishing line in the finals by a fraction of a second. Do such athletes quit
and not participate in the next event? Not at all. On the contrary, they review
their performance discreetly and start their daily practice with stronger
resolve and enthusiasm as they firmly believe in improving their performance
further while enjoying life. Actually, they know well that winners never quit
and quitters never win. American psychologist Joyce Diane B. Brothers opines
that the person interested in success has to learn to view failure as a
healthy, inevitable part of the process of getting to the top.
Interestingly,
you will find in world history the details of many success stories pertaining
to those great persons, who despite having failed several times finally
achieved unimaginable successes – discoveries, inventions, innovations etc. The
renowned thinker and writer of the best seller book ‘Think and Grow’ Napoleon
Hill asserts that most great people have attained their greatest success just
one step beyond their greatest failure. He also says that every adversity,
every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater
benefit. The failure actually prepares you for the bigger responsibility. This
is the unique law of nature. It is absolutely true that these great people in
one way or the other accepted wholeheartedly that one must not stop taking the
best of efforts and never think for a moment to leave the field even after
failing more than once. They used to enjoy that moment instead. In fact,
failure does not mean you are defeated. You feel defeated once you start losing
your self-confidence and consequently stop trying your best. You will agree
that who firmly and confidently moves forward even in the most difficult
situations, he surely reaches his destination.
Among the thousands of great persons of the world if you can read the biography of at least 4-5 persons such as the great freedom fighter and social reformer Bal Gangadhar Tilak, the famous scientist and former President of India Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the great scientist and inventor Thomas Alva Edison, the co-founder of Apple Company Steve Jobs and the famous industrialist and founder of Ford Motor Company Henry Ford in next four-five months, believe me, you will get huge inspiration and encouragement to march towards life’s goals with clarity, confidence and conviction and also start enjoying your failures, if any.
As always, I'm keen to know what you think on this subject. Hence, I request you to post your comments to share your valuable opinion. (hellomilansinha@gmail.com)
# Published in my Sunday Column of "Morning India" daily. # Click here to enjoy my Blog in Hindi, "Chalte, Chalte" (चलते, चलते)
