Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Failure is not final


The world is made up of successful and unsuccessful people but there is a thin line between success and failure. You may not believe this assertion but the fact of life is that the most successful people are also the people that have failed the most. 

People that attempted for instance, to set up a business and failed usually put the blame on themselves. They internalise the experience, lose faith in themselves due to battered ego. Their self worth takes a beating so much they begin to see themselves as failures. Once they come to this level, they give up hope on life, mourn their disappointments and wear dejected looks on their faces.

Their battered ego, make them lose sight of their true capabilities. Also poor diagnosis of their situation, lead to wrong declaration that they are not good enough. If only they could pick themselves up to attempt that thing they failed, their story would change for the better.  

For some they give up too soon when their success is just a breath away. This failure mindset must change if they want to be counted amongst the worlds super achievers.

History is replete with men that had tried in various fields of human endeavour and failed. However, there are also some that had failed several times and finally recorded remarkable achievements. Thomas Edison was one such individual who proved that failure was not final but a stepping stone to success.

He failed nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine (9,999) times in the experiment to create the incandescent electric bulb. History has it that when he was asked about the many times he had failed, His response was “…I have not failed. I only found Nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine (9,999) ways that the light bulb will not work…”

Considering that the response, came from a man that had over one thousand (1,000) United States patents for various inventions in diverse fields, then you would understand why failure is not final in the life of any person.

You must agree with me that Edison’s determination culminating in various life changing inventions, made life easy for every one living in the 21st century. His patents include the dictating machine, incandescent electric bulb, phonograph, telegraph, storage battery, telephone and many other inventions.

Thomas Edison was a man that refused to quit despite all odds. A memorable quotation from him on determination explains how his mind worked. He was quoted as saying that “genius is one percent inspiration and ninety nine percent perspiration”. He had the knack to keep trying until success came his way. His life proved that no matter how many times you fail, you can succeed if you keep trying.

For many successful people, what you hear is their success stories. Do not be deceived because for each success recorded, there were equally numerous failures before the eventual single success you got to hear. It is just that the single success is celebrated whereas no one except the person’s involved remembers the number of times they had failed.

This is a wake up call for people who had tried and had given up hope. They should realize that failing was not abnormal or what they had perceived it to be. Failing is in fact a great teacher.

Cheer up! You are not a failure. You may have invested in a business and it did not work out, invested in the stock market and lost money, married and suffered divorce, made a speech and people didn’t give you a standing ovation, tried to engage a woman for a strong relationship but she turned your advances down tried to sell a product and you could not.

Learn not to make all the above catalogue of failures personal. They were just events that happened. Analyse the situation dispassionately and you will notice that you as a person did not fail. Be rest assured that failing is temporal just be resilient and the world will hear of you.

No comments:

Post a Comment