Lessons of Failure

”The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything.” These lines of Steve Jobs took me through an internal, enlightening revelation.

After getting fired as Apple CEO, Steve Jobs didn’t stop. The failure taught him the relevance of the learning that can’t be discovered on a success ladder. He bounced back with a bang and came up with another successful company. His increasing success and Apple’s downfall forced Apple’s board to appoint him back.

Then the story of another success followed with Steve Jobs evolution of ipad. This explains that the word failure does not exist in his life. If we take each failure as feedback, we will be filled with zeal, motivation and courage to deliver the best.

Feedback on every step

If we notice, same stands true for a player. Every step or a milestone is a feedback. I have a high gratitude for all athletes or sports player. On regular basis they give us a dose of inspiration. They fall, struggle, undergo pain but again get up to rise and shine.

Every step for them is a feedback. If they get trapped in the vicious circle of failure then standing high is next to impossible.

Saurav Ganguly or Ricky Ponting, both started fighting failure without realising that they need to concentrate on the feedback which was constantly flowing from peers, coach and above all from themselves.

The ones who are caught in the dilemma of failure can’t rise high. They take too much of time, energy and effort to rise back and in all this they start losing to others, most importantly to themselves.

Lot of time we crave for an advice from others and expect to get comments on our actions. Ironically when it comes in the form of failure we get disheartened and feel de-motivated. We fail to identify it as an opportunity to learn from mistakes. Analyzing Lessons from Failure is critical. We fail to move onto the next step of the ladder without realising that success is only one step away. It requires a lot of courage to accept failure and then turn it into success.

Failure can identify strengths and weakness. Failure is an excellent medium to identify the strengths and weaknesses. It empowers to overcome weakness and to build on the strengths. We have to develop our mental power to positively accept any criticism as it reflects our weaknesses, which if worked to improve, put us on top of the world. Friends, parents, coach and boss are the best source of correct feedback as they give their genuine inputs. Sometimes we learn this from our children also.

My 6 yrs old daughter came back from school and declared, “Mama I couldn’t win the story recitation competition but I tried my best and now I know how to win next time”.

Her words satisfied me and made me realise a simple reality of life – don’t stop running from the fear of falling down. Every reaction is the feedback of our action. It is up to us how positively we accept it.

Bill Gates saying highly inspires me:

“It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”