Failure: The Seed of Success

Did you ever read something that lit up your mind! That made you think, “That’s for me!” You knew it could work. You knew it was right. You knew you should try it. But you didn’t. Why? It’s because of fear. Oh, I’m not saying that you aren’t brave. You would risk your life for those you love. You would stand strong in the face of danger. Perhaps you don’t even fear death! Then why don’t you embrace your new found inspiration and take action? It is because you are afraid to fail. We all are to some extent.

You don’t believe me? Hear me out. Why is your neighbor always talking about what he “should” do, but is never “doing” it? Do you know anyone who watches all the infomercials, gets fired up, and either doesn’t make the call, or makes the call and when his product arrives he looks it over, gets nervous, then puts it on the shelf for a “rainy day”? Most likely you do know such a person. I too have a few “business” products lying around my house or filed away on my computer, waiting for me to make my move. So why haven’t I done anything? You guessed it, fear. I’ve done what countless others have done, but now I know why I did it.

Years ago, when I was taking one of my first “creative writing” classes I had a writing teacher who, after reading the first chapter of a novel I had begun for his class, informed me “This is a great beginning!” Then he told me something I never forgot. He said his brightest students, the ones who were excellent writers, were often “left in the dust” by his mediocre students who went out and made money publishing. It’s true. I know, because I was one of those “left in the dust.” I hesitated and failed to act. Even after being told by many others, including published college professors, that I was an “excellent writer” (I’m not trying to toot my own horn here, just make a point) I still failed to act. I didn’t believe that I could do something better than others. I thought others would criticize me, or that my writing would be rejected, or that I would be embarrassed to have even tried it, so
I continued to write…for myself. Why? That’s right, fear. Like I said, I never forgot what my teacher said, but I did not act on it. So why did my teacher’s mediocre students succeed, while the excellent writers failed? They overcame their fear and acted on his advice. They followed through. Sometimes the only thing that stands between us and our dreams is that we don’t act on them.

Again I ask, why? And again I answer, because of fear.

So what is it that we are afraid of? One of the biggest fears is failure. (Some of us even fear success, but I’ll save that for another article.) Failure is an interesting word. Although the word is most often used to define an action, such as “The investment was a failure.” Or “The failure of the union to reach an agreement with management precipitated the strike.” Unfortunately, we sometimes think it applies to people, such as “I am a failure.” Although we sometimes “fail”, and we all do, that doesn’t make us failures. Remember when you started to learn to ride a bike, or drive a car. Did you do it perfect the first time? I’ll wager that you did not. But then I ask you, did you give up and not learn? I’ll bet you didn’t! Although you failed, perhaps numerous times, you kept trying until you “succeeded!” I’m right, huh?

So, now what? You see, you have already proved that you can fail and then succeed, that failure is the seed of success. All successes have once been failures. Most of us learn from our mistakes. Perhaps the impact of failure has changed and so the fear seems greater. Instead of fearing falling off a bike, or running over an orange cone, we are afraid of losing time, a small fortune, the respect of our peers, being embarrassed if we don’t succeed the first time, or we may even fear losing the love of someone important to us. So we hesitate, or do nothing. You can’t fail if you don’t try, right? But didn’t you just fail to try? Okay, I’m playing with words here, I know. If you don’t want to fail big, then start small.

For instance, if you want to be a writer, start writing for free. Write for a local charity or newsletter. Are you a budding playwright? Try writing your first play for a local theatre group. You gain experience and you also build your portfolio. If you want to invest in stocks or real estate, there are many online games where you can learn and try your hand at it, risk free. The list goes on. Almost anything you can think of that you might want to try, you can begin with little or no risk. The libraries are full of “how to” books. In fact, the Internet is full of how to books and articles as well. But the world is also full of people who come in the library, check out ten books, read them, get excited, and then do nothing. The same goes with the Internet. They download everything they can find on their subject, and then they don’t even read it. I admit it is really easy to get overwhelmed with information. After all, this is the Information Age and it does have its challenges. Nevertheless, occasionally, a person does catch fire and overcoming all fear changes his life into what he dreams it can be. So can you! It may be that the only difference between you and the wealthy guy living in the big house on top of the hill is that he took action to pursue his dreams.

If you have a dream, go for it! You don’t have to read everything before you make your move. Like I said, start small! But start! Once you start it is easier to keep going. As Newton said, an object in motion tends to stay in motion. Who knows, maybe “you” will catch fire. Few of us are going to say on our death beds, “I wish had spent more time working at my job.” There was a man I knew who used to say, “A failure is someone who quits trying.” It’s true! You cannot fail, if you consistently learn from your mistakes and keep going. In fact, it is impossible! Remember Edison? He failed over 10,000 times before coming up with the electric light. Where would we be if he had feared failure? In the dark? (Unfortunately, I’m afraid some of us still are.) Yet, in spite of his many failures, Edison became the man with the most patents in history, almost 1200. So don’t be afraid to fail. Without failure, there can be no success. Go for it! Don’t be afraid to fail. Each failure brings you closer to success. Go for your dreams! You want it! You deserve it! And I firmly believe, “You were born to succeed!”