Hey Friends,
There are plenty of literature and life coaches who vehemently propagate failures as a stepping stone to all successes. I do have the inclination to agree with these tribes only to some extent. I say so because failures are no fun, they are some of the significant psychologically traumatised events. The world is very good at selling ONLY those failures which eventually turned out to be successful in the end and conveniently ignored the rest who got dusted for the rest of their lives.
‘Failure brings the most realistic life lessons’ – is as much a cliche as it’s true message wrapped in it__ Joe
During the week, I stumbled across ‘JK Rowling’s 2008 Commencement Speech at Harvard University’ and while listening to it, a particular aspect caught my attention and deeply resonated with me. So here it goes –
There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, the responsibility lies with you.
JK Rowling
I couldn’t agree more with what she said about taking responsibility. I would like to make it clear, in parenthesis, that we can not blame our parents for their point of view. The moment you go solo and sit behind the wheels, you are responsible for piloting your life ahead.
Failure is no fun, it entails poverty which further entails fear, stress, and sometimes depression. It also means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of failures through your own efforts is indeed something on which to pride yourself, but failures itself is romanticised only by fools.
Surprisingly, one’s conception of failure might not be too far from the average person’s idea of success. Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it.
Let me quote JK Rowling in her own words –
“So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free because my greatest fear had been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above the price of rubies.
The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more than any qualification I ever earned.”
Take good care & enjoy reading your dose of cerebral happiness.
JOE
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