Sunday, April 4, 2010

Failure

I admit I have failed. I have no qualms whatsoever in admitting failure. To quote Michael Jordan, "I have failed over and over and over again and that is why I succeed." I can recognize failure and live with it. To me, its worth losing a battle to win a war. After all, these defeats are our teachers. They teach you what victory can't. For a major victory, you need to have many defeats worth of experience under your belt. That's why serial entrepreneurs eventually succeed.

Wisdom comes from experience. Experience comes from failure. So in essence, wisdom is the sum total of all your failures. That's why a truly wise person is not young. I'm wise for my age, but I still have a long way to go.

I recognize the hand of destiny guiding me along my path. I trust in that hand to lead me to more experiences to enhance my learning. Victory or defeat, come what may, is a learning experience.

If you introspect, you'll realize that your failures paved the way for all your major successes. It's so for me. A person who has not failed has failed to try anything new!

Every experience starts at the beginning with failure, when you're new to it. So, how can you ever become good at something if you don't fail at it? You don't fail only if you keep on doing something which you have already mastered, in which case you are living in a cocoon.

So, don't be afraid of failure. Don't reward failure either, although you can celebrate and cherish it.

I end by quoting Thomas Alva Edison, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."