“Sir, I do not think I can ever be successful in life and please, don’t force me over and over to continue my studies further. It’s enough from here and let me work in a garage to get advance money to feed my home. You know that I have got a very poor memory which doesn’t allow me to memorise my lessons. I had even prepared for my test and had tried my level best to pass it but all my efforts went in vain. See, I failed my test again, so let me quit studies from here,” Shakeel said with tears in his eyes as his teacher announced the result of the third monthly test of Grade 5.
“No, never ever say that I don’t have the power to get success. Of course, you can and you will if you won’t give up. Never be hopeless and afraid of failure, they are the part of our lives, just you have to overcome these difficulties in order to acquire success in your life. Your efforts can never be without fruits, in fact, one day you will get the sweet fruits of your today’s hard work, just continue your brilliant efforts forever,” the teacher tried to convince him with hopes for a bright future.
“But Sir it is not my first time that I got failed even before I had got failed several times, now I think it is better to leave studying and I can’t have power to get success. Failure is the end of everyone’s journey. So, let me work as a child labour which is better for me.” He said with a bored expiration on his face.
“Dear! Failure is not the end rather it is such an opportunity to begin something again more intelligently. Never be afraid of failure and don’t quit after facing any kinds of challenges in your life. Do you know history is full of brilliant personalities who too had faced multiple difficulties and got failed in hundreds of times but they didn’t give up rather they had got new ideas for seeking their destinations? As the exceptions are those failures that become steppingstones to later success. As the case with Thomas Edison, whose most excellent invention was the light bulb, which had purportedly took him 1,000 tries before he had developed a successful prototype.
Once he was asked by a reporter that, “How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?” Then he responded that he didn’t fail 1,000 times rather the light an invention with 1,000 steps.” Even According to his teachers that Thomas was both hearing impaired and fidgety and he was very stupid to learn anything. Eventually he was home schooled by his mom and he was only lasted three months in the school.” Teacher uttered them energetically with him.
“Sir! My friends always made fun of me while I got failed to achieve something, so is failure against of the opportunities and success? asked Shakeel eagerly.
“No, never, failure is not against success at all rather it is the only door to welcome the opportunities to come for everyone. History is witnessed that every successful person has faced many kinds of failures in their lives but they all have learnt to take their failures and utilised them to gain success.
You always need to pay attention to the opportunities that your failures bring along your path. In fact, failure comes from a mistake but mistake is a rare and precious opportunity to learn something new because it teaches that not to do as by committing mistakes you get the real way for a more successful future.” Answered the teacher with proofs and details about the failure.
“Thanks a million for opening my blind mind to think about each and everything deeply and know the importance of failure which leads to success. I promise not to be afraid of failure rather face it enthusiastically which tells a new way to achieve the things which I want. Now I know that failure is not the end rather it is the beginning to achieve a shining future in everyone’s life. Failure is the main pillar to build our future dawn until we give up when we face it.
“Brilliant, my dear,” he said.
The writer teaches at DELTA and can be reached at [email protected]
Published in Daily Times, February 18th 2019.