Failure is one of the hardest things to come to terms with. In this age of social media, validation and success play a huge part in the way you present yourself to the public eye. From a very young age we are in competition with our peers to be more successful. So when we face failure, we do not want to accept it.
However, this age-old thought is being revised as many studies reveal that there is always more we can learn from failure than from success. None of the most famous people in the world reached where they are right now without tasting the bitter pill of failure. In fact, J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series had her first manuscript of the series rejected by at least twelve publishers before Bloomsbury gave her a chance.
So, what can failure teach you that success can’t?
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Character building
It isn’t easy to accept failure and try again. Many prefer to just quit because they think they have reached a dead end. This is not true. Failure teaches you that if you fall, you must get up and try again and again until you reach your goal. It builds character and prepares you for your next step in life. It teaches you how to handle a similar situation next time and succeed in the first try.
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Cautions you
Those who taste success early do not know how to face a particular situation when the need arises. It gives them false confidence and they end up trying to be too many things too fast.
Failure, on the other hand, teaches you where you need to be careful and how to assess things before you decide to delve into a new business headfirst.
When you are careful and you think things through, you are bound to be more successful in your next venture.
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Weakness
It is really hard to get something right the very first time you try it. You are going to make mistakes along the way. One of the best parts of failure is that, it helps you identify these mistakes so you are better prepared for something similar happening the next time and avoiding it altogether.
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Alternatives
When you fail, you should never give up at once. There will be ten other ways to achieve your goal, some more obvious than the rest. If you fail, you are able to analyze where you went wrong and how to avoid it in the future. If the entire route seems to be hopeless, you come up with less obvious but equally effective ways to reach your goal.
Failure makes you open your mind and think of possibilities that you might not have in the first place. It broadens your way of thinking.
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Experience
Experience is interspersed with failure more often than not. Failure changes your experience and makes you better prepared for the things that might happen out of the blue. Every time you start out on a new venture, you will not be very successful until you gain enough experience to figure out where you might go wrong and how you can avoid it.
It is said that Thomas A. Edison failed in 10,000 attempts before he got his first functioning prototype of a light bulb.
“I’ve not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas A. Edison
If you embrace failure, you embrace success too. The fear of failure has stopped many from trying out new ideas and unconventional things. This is because most of us are afraid to face failure. However, failure is the first step to success and we must be brave enough to take that first step.
