It’s human to hate failure. But we are able to realize what’s right only when things go wrong. I’ve failed many times than I would like to admit. As much as we hate failure, it is really an important aspect required for molding a personality out of a person.
We learn a lot through our failures. It’s a natural chisel that scraps down our egos, stubbornness, and all the excess negativity as it shapes us into an erudite and enlightened human.
Just like a baby learning to walk, it falls down and fails many times. Despite its failure, we’re always confident that one day it will walk, since it is a phase of life to tumble before a baby learns to rise. So why aren’t other failures of life comprehended in that way?
The problem with our society is it tends to celebrate successes rather than highlighting the hard work and persistence in the epic journeys towards success. All through the route it’s filled with trails, tribulations, disappointments, setbacks and failures.
“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” — Michael Jordan
The first important lesson gained from failure is Experience.
The experience of failing at something is a true treasure. It changes our frame-of-mind through the induction of pain. It makes us evince the real nature and importance of things in our lives, transforming and improving our future-selves.
Knowledge is another important characteristic that comes through failure. That knowledge can be harnessed in the future to overcome that very failure. Nothing can replace the knowledge gained from failure.
Even great minds such as Benjamin Franklin failed nearly 10,000 times, which led to creating a viable electric light bulb. Every time he would gain knowledge of just one more way that didn’t work. What ultimately led to success was all the accumulated knowledge developed from those 10,000 failed attempts. His theories and treasured knowledge helped individuals in that field to ladder-up.
Another important element that adds up in a person’s trait by failing is Resilience. The more we fail, the more resilient we become.
If we’re stubborn about succeeding on the first try, or even first few tries, then it is absolute that we’re setting ourselves up for a more painful failure. So in order to achieve great success, we must know resilience.
Life is planned for us to grow and improve. From the very genetic fibers that make us into who we are as individual people, into the fabric of society on a global scale, growth is a central part of us. Without Growth, we couldn’t improve life on every front.
One of the major lessons that we can learn from life’s failures is the need to create and spread an extremely high amount of Value. In fact, the value lies at the heart of success and a lack of value is a fundamental pillar to failure.
Consider your past failures; think about how much value have you inculcated? Could you have absorbed more value? Would that have helped you dodge failure? When you’re learning to create immense value, do it so consistently that you wouldn’t even feel the hurdles while you eventually succeed.
“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.” — J.K. Rowling
Once you understand what failure is, and how it’s meant to serve us rather than hinder us, you’ll free your mind and open your heart to experience the joy of failure. So, if you’ve failed in life, hopefully you better understand the importance of failing and failing often.
– Poonam Yadav
