Failing in any way or form can be a destabilizing thing to happen to anyone and a difficult situation to handle.
It is, therefore, no surprise that we teach ourselves, from the very day we are born, to avoid it; we learn that failing is bad and undesirable. Perhaps, we have been looking at failure from the wrong perspective all along!
So is it okay to fail? Absolutely! It is so because failure launches you into a grand success. Failing is crucial for the emotional growth and character development of an individual. There are a lot of ways in which failure can help you.
The truth is that failing helps you achieve some things that you may not have otherwise. In the wise words of Robert F. Kennedy, “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”
Who Is A Failure?
This question gets asked often; hence, it is imperative to state who is considered a failure.
It is worth saying that not succeeding at accomplishing laid-out goals does not make you a failure. It does not matter how many times you fail; as long as you do not give up, you are not a failure.
A failure accepts defeat and the false idea that they cannot accomplish the task at hand. Such a person ends up throwing in the towel after failing and gives in to the fear that they will never succeed.
Failure may also refer to a state in which a person has been unsuccessful in doing or achieving something they had set out to do or achieve. Failing can be a very crippling and destabilizing state to find oneself.
It can and has discouraged a lot of people from trying to actualize their dreams and desires. Although failing is a natural part of life, many dread it because they have learned to believe that failing is bad.
Can Failures Become Successful?
However, despite what many may think, failing can lead a person to become the best at what they do when they eventually succeed.
An example of this is Thomas Edison. The inventor was known to have made a thousand failed attempts at inventing the light bulb, for which he is most celebrated today.
If you have failed many times to achieve your goals or desires, know that it is still possible to actualize them. The hurdles stopping you may seem lofty and impossible to overcome; however, if you keep trying, sooner rather than later, you will scale it and emerge victoriously.
Famous Successful People Who Failed
There are several examples of successful famous people that failed before their success and some of them are:
- Abraham Lincoln
A founding father and former President of the United States of America, Abraham Lincoln experienced some failures in his life. He was unable to make it as a businessman. When he first ventured into law, he failed to impress some of his peers that considered him too emotional and an idealist.
As a politician, he first tried to get into the legislature and lost; he also lost when he tried for a nomination in Congress. Abraham also failed to become the commissioner of the General Land Office.
He lost the senatorial elections in 1854 and again in 1858. He also did not get the vice presidency position in 1856 when he contested. Despite all these, in 1861, he became 16th President of America and led the country through the American Civil War.
- Sigmund Freud
The Austrian neurologist was met with criticism and disapproval when he first presented his papers to his peers in Europe. However, he did not relent and continued postulating theories for the treatment in psychopathology through dialogue. Today, psychoanalysis – which was his brainchild – is recognized as a field in clinical psychology.
- Winston Churchill
Former Prime Minister and Statesman of the United Kingdom – Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was said to have failed and repeated a class in elementary school. He also failed the entrance examination into the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst twice.
He failed his first attempt to serve in the United Kingdom Parliament. At 62 years of age, Churchill became the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1940 during the Second World War and again in 1951.
- Walt Disney
American Entrepreneur and the pioneer of the American animation industry – Walter Elias Disney did not always succeed, and his life was not as rosy or whimsical as his cartoons.
He lost a job at a newspaper house because the editor believed he lacked good ideas and broad imagination. Walter also went bankrupt several times before building Disneyland.
He faced some challenges getting the Disneyland project off the ground. In all these, he remained relentless and persevered until he succeeded, and he did so exceptionally.
- Michael Jordan
Perhaps the most famous and illustrious in basketball, Michael Jeffrey Jordan, former professional player and the current principal owner and chairman of the Charlotte Hornets, was cut from his high school basketball team.
The famous saying, “I can accept failure since everyone fails at something. But I can not accept not trying.” were his words.
Today, the same man has broken many basketball records and is considered a living legend in the sport. He holds the all-time Finals record free throws in a quarter with nine and has the highest ever scoring average in a Finals series with 41.0 points per game in 1993.
- Henry Ford
It is on record that American industrialist – Henry Ford failed and became broke five good times before he finally succeeded.
Today, the car manufacturing company he founded, Ford Motor Company, is a multinational automaker with a production output of 5.5 million vehicles and worth more than 145 billion dollars, according to Forbes.
- Ludwig Van Beethoven
German pianist and prominent composer – Ludwig van Beethoven, whose teacher told him he would never make it as a composer.
Beethoven, who had also gone deaf by the time he turned 45, did not give up on his dream of becoming a great composer.
His symphonies like ‘Symphony No. 9 in D Minor’ and ‘Eroica Symphony’ are today ranked amongst the most performed of the classical music repertoire.
- Babe Ruth
American baseball player – George Herman Ruth, popularly known as Babe Ruth, was notoriously known to have held the highest number of strikeouts in American baseball once upon a time.
In the duration of his career as a baseball player that spanned 22 seasons from 1914 to 1935, he struck out a total of 1330 times! Despite this failure, he was also able to hit 714 home runs in Major League Baseball.
The Importance Of Failing
As the author of the Harry Potter series, J. K. Rowling puts it, “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live your life so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.” In essence, it is better to try and fail than not to try at all.
Failing can help you in the following ways:
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Failing Helps You Get Better
There is just a height that you cannot attain unless you fail. No human knows everything, and as the wise saying goes, experience is often the best teacher.
Some things cannot be taught or explained; you ought to have a personal encounter with it to fully understand it.
It is necessary to understand that life is not always about actualizing an objective or going somewhere; sometimes, the process is just as important as the goal.
Self-realization is a vital part of self-development and is very important in living a rich and meaningful life. Disappointments and failures can help you burrow further and arrive at new understandings crucial in improving your life and work.
It is more than fine to come up short since it assists you in gleaning revealing insights concerning what you really need and where your destination is as a person.
By failing, you are allowed to build new systems to push through present-day deterrents and to discover better approaches to existing issues.
To truly learn, develop, and improve your life, you need to fail. Through disappointments and failures, we improve a very core part of our being.
Permit failure so that you can become wiser and more helpful to yourself and the people around you. The fact is that growth, development, and maturity are impossible without failure; so is improved living.
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Failure Strengthens You
Failure can strengthen your resolve to achieve what had previously seemed impossible. It gives you the mental and emotional strength to weather the challenges and emerge victoriously.
It creates in you this desire to prove wrong everyone that said you could not achieve it and everything that has stood in your way.
Failure makes you bolder. Once you have experienced it, you will no longer dread it as much as you once did. Rowland Hussey Macy, the founder of Macy’s – the department store chain – was said to have failed to open a store seven times before he successfully launched a store in New York City.
Even though Macy experienced failures and disappointments trying to open a ‘dry goods’ store in such places as California and Massachusetts, he persevered and grew stronger in his resolve to open the store and finally succeeded in 1858.
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Failure Makes You A Risk Taker
If there is something that failing a lot will do to you, it makes you a risk-taker. A person who has experienced a lot of failures is often less afraid of failing some more.
As such, they are more daring in their approach to achieving their goals. They do not mind taking the less trodden paths if there is a possibility it will lead to success. Such people often enjoy immense success.
Failure can also be a really potent motivator. Anyone who has failed and had to go through the resultant feelings of self-doubt, anger, and what have you, will do their very best not to feel that way again.
Even when giving up seems like the wisest and most logical thing to do, such people never relent until they achieve their goals and objectives.
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It Makes Success Better
Just like how people better appreciate things when put side-by-side with inferior ones, success often feels better after you have failed.
Your success will feel even more deserved when you seemed to have beaten all the odds to achieve it. In the process of actualizing your dreams, the more you fail, the greater your success will feel.
Imagine how Edison felt when he finally succeeded in creating a working light bulb. He must have felt fulfilled, and his joy must have been more profound because he made a groundbreaking invention despite all the failures he had had during the inventive process.
Why You Need To Fail
There are ample examples from history that prove that failing a couple of times does not mean you will never succeed. Most of the successful people we admire today had failed at one point or the other in their quest to becoming great.
They did not let that fact determine their future. No matter how many times a person fails, there is a good chance that they will succeed in their next attempt.
Failing can teach us some lessons that we will ordinarily not learn if we succeeded all the time.
For one thing, winning at everything always will leave no room for improvement as it will send a message to those involved that they are doing everything right. It often stems from the idea that if something has not broken, there is no need to fix it.
However, that creates a problem of complacency and stagnancy. A person or company that would have been more innovative and daring had they failed previously, would become too afraid to veer off the safe path that had so far proven to be successful.
In contrast, failing helps us to think of the best solutions and constantly improve upon them. There is a measure of doubt you need to test every idea you have and make it foolproof.
Failing can help one become a great success because those experiences carve out the best version of us.
How To Cope With Failure
Things will not go as you have planned every time, and that can seem unfair, but it should not be a surprise to anyone with a plan. If your plan for the present does not perfectly align with your reality, do not fret or become despondent.
You should always make a plan B and plan C in case plan A does not work to your advantage. Having backup plans shows that you understand the world we live in and what it requires from you.
Everyone fails, and that is the truth. It is what you do with that failure that matters the most. Do not ever ignore the circumstances that led to it because it hurts a lot or because you want to only focus on the positive.
There is a difference between inspecting your past failures to find the lessons you can learn from them and fixating on the past failures.
The best thing you can do with past failures is to learn from them. The larger the failure, the more it can teach you about yourself and what you need to do in your next attempt.
Always see failure as an opportunity to do even better. No matter what people tell you, know that failure is not a taboo but a natural part of the process of living and becoming great.
Even the renowned Greek philosopher – Socrates seemed like a failure who was corrupting the minds of the youth in ancient Greece. It led to his execution when he had to drink the poison hemlock by force.
However, he is still widely known today as one of the founders of Western philosophy despite dying in 399 BC.
Believe that just as your forbears were able to overcome diverse struggles and failures, some of which was even greater than you can ever face today, you too are equally capable of surviving despite the failures you experience.
Yes, we all celebrate success, but behind every success story is one of several failures. Do not fear failure; it occurs to help you become even better, to dig even deeper, and to think even more creatively.
There is no denying that it hurts. It can be embarrassing but, it is also a natural part of life. What you see as a failure today can be instrumental in shaping your life tomorrow.
Let us consider the story of Charles Robert Darwin, a celebrated naturalist known for his immense contribution to the science of evolution.
Darwin dropped out of medical school to the disappointment of his father. His teachers did not think much of him as he was considered a lazy student with a mediocre intellect at best.
His father was a successful physician, and it seemed only natural that his son should be one. At the point when he dropped out, it must have looked as though Darwin had failed to make it in life.
But he ended up becoming a prominent scientist, leaving a legacy that is still relevant more than 130 years after his death.
Is It Good To Fail?
Attempting to do something is already a good enough reason to be proud of yourself. Many people live their lives without trying to do anything remotely challenging or innovative.
Even when the thing you attempted seems commonplace, be happy that you tried because your trying matters.
Failure can be very liberating. If nothing else, it frees you from the shackles of fear. Fear can be a very restrictive and limiting feeling.
The fear of failure and inadequacies can confine a person to a prison of their making. In any event, failing can renew your energy when looked at from the perspective of learning. If you see failure as a prompt to do better, it will help you achieve great things.
Another beautiful thing that failing can do for us is act as a reality check. It is possible to get so caught up in our successes that we fail to realize that we are now approaching things from the wrong perspective.
Failing helps us take a constructive look at all we have done and informs the decisions we make moving forward; in this sense, it allows us to have a panoramic view of our past, present, and possible future.
It is not predetermined for anyone to become a failure no matter how many times they have failed. You can take some time to regain your confidence in your ability and to rest your weary head but never say never.
Imagine if Albert Einstein had given up when he did not do well in school, or if he had surrendered to fate when his teachers remarked that they thought he was mentally slow and would amount to no good. If he had given up, how would the world be like today?
Imagine a world where Steve Jobs had given up his dream of creating more efficient computers. How would it have looked today?
Despite being rejected at Hewlett Packard and Atari, Jobs and his partner – Steve Wozniak, created the multinational company that is Apple Inc. It is worth trillions of dollars today. Because so many others chose not to give up, the world is now all the better for it.
An understated advantage of experiencing failure is that it helps us become more compassionate and understanding of the world around us.
Due to our past failures, we can understand the plight of certain people and work towards improving their lives.
A person who failed to pass a particular examination because they did not have good tutors and study materials can later provide books and free tutorials to other people in a similar situation.
Learn to live life without recourse to your past failures. Live in the moment and do whatever you desire without fear of failing.
What Happens If I Fail In Life?
When you fail, get back on your feet, dust yourself, and soldier on. Do not let anything stop you from achieving your dream. It will be difficult to ignore the pain of failure, but you have to.
Wallow in it if you must but never spend too much time doing that. You have to remain focused on your goals because failure and all that comes with it are merely bumps and hurdles that you have to scale to get where you have to be.
Adopt the trial and error method – test every idea and see what works. Be adventurous and bold in all you do.
In the grand scheme of things, nothing significant happens if you fail. It may seem like such a big deal, and you may feel not only your disappointment but that of others around you but, nobody remembers the failures when you finally make it.
At best, they will serve as a good build-up in your success story. Never let failure paralyze you. You are not your failures, and you will never be. Swim through those feelings of pain and self-doubt and emerge an admirable success.
When you are trying to succeed, learn to keep negativity at a distance. It may be people in your life making you feel like you cannot do it, or maybe it is the news and the constant report of fear and impossibilities – do not let those things come around you.
Consciously guard yourself against negativity because it can destroy and make you feel like a failure.
Conclusion
Your failures do not define you. Failing to achieve a desired goal or objective does not mean you are a failure, those are only setbacks. It is a natural part of succeeding.
The sheer number of successful people who experienced it on their journeys while trying to achieve something proves that. When you fail, do not despair, break down or disparage yourself, put your chin up and forge on.
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