All of us have experienced failures at some time in our lives. Perhaps, it could be failure in exams, inability to get a job or not being selected for a sports event . One can meet several obstacles on the way of life but brooding upon disappointments does not help us at all. The only way to achieve success is to carry on.
In science, inventions and discoveries do not happen overnight . Thomas Alva Edison, who had a thousand inventions to his credit including the filament bulb , had many failures before he was rewarded with success . a reporter asked him why he wasted his time in his efforts. Edison said, “No, I just found thousand ways in which I could not make the electric bulb”. Walt Disney was fired from the Kansas city star because he lacked imagination and had no great ideas according to his editor. Bill Gates , one of the most successful men of today ,also endured difficulties but he said, “it’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to pay heed to the lessons of failure”.
All these real life experiences of great people help us to realise that failures are not the end of everything. Einstein was considered to be weak in his studies, but still went on to discover the ‘theory of relativity’ which was a great contribution to the field of science. If Edison and Einstein had given up on their ambitions and allowed themselves to be dejected, the world would have lost out on two great personalities.
Most of the significant things in the world have been accomplished by people who kept on trying even when there seemed no hope of success cat all. One such example is Indian freedom struggle. Several attempts were made to overthrow the British. Many people were martyred, many were imprisoned. Yet, without losing hope, the freedom fighters continued the struggle. India finally won independence in 1947 after two centuries of long foreign rule.
It has been rightly said “a person who never made a mistake never tried anything new “. This means
that you never stop failing until you stop trying. To overcome failures, we must have realistic ideas about our capabilities and then work on them. There are always people who willing to help us achieve our goals. We should be optimistic. If one door shuts, there is always another way to enter.
Successful people do not allow failures to keep them down. They are resilient and ready to take up challenge. Failures can make us feel ineffective and inadequate. Instead of getting depressed over it, we must learn from our mistakes. Failure is a feedback and without a feedback, we could not get information about where we just went wrong and therefore what we need to do correctly or the next time. For instance, it can help us find unexpected motivation to success.
Failures are therefore not stumbling blocks but stepping stones to success. They teach us invaluable lessons of turning pessimistic feelings into something positive and worthwhile. Accepting and learning from those lessons is the key to succeed in life. Success is so much sweeter when one has endured a failure.