“Success” it’s the most glorified goal and over used word in today’s world. Whenever anyone achieves something in their life they become a success story and automatically everything related to that person’s life is glamorized and portrayed in a way that somehow leads to their success. Being successful is a drug that makes one run after things that at times they don’t really want. It’s a sad reality but people have started to measure their success by looking at what other people have. Success has become a very comparative term rather than an internal achievement. But does this mean not succeeding is better?
Absolutely not, however, we have ignored the most important road map to success which is “failure”. Einstein said “Failure is success in progress”. Despite that, failure is a taboo word, and to such an extent that we cover even the smallest failure in our resumes, LinkedIn, social gathering; you name it. We have started to chase success so much that failure seems like the worst thing that could ever happen. However we don’t realize that the worst thing is chasing the wrong success. Sometimes failure is an indicator that something is just not meant for us and at times it’s just a pause hinting us to wait for the right time. Failure isn’t all bad, the day we realize that, majority of us can come to terms with ourselves and with the things that didn’t work out. This cycle of chasing success and hiding failure is emotionally and mentally exhausting as it makes someone feel like they haven’t achieved because they are failing. But, failure is success of ideas that couldn’t work, failure is success of ideas that could wait and mostly failure is a success of an idea that you at least dared to try for. Failure isn’t your enemy but a difficult teacher that we honestly can learn a lot from.
We see a lot of people talk about their failures after success. Read a biography of any big name and it will glorify the failure and show that as success, but there is a big problem to this approach. As it shows that the only moment when failure is not embarrassing to talk about is when you have already succeeded. In today’s world, the pressure of social media and the society has actually disabled a lot of individuals from trying new projects as they have a deep rooted fear of failure. How many programs, shows and platforms enable successful people to discuss their failures and how come there isn’t a single well known show that lets people who didn’t succeed at all express their failures?
The idea that we must win kills the side of a person that wishes to try. The same cycle is seen in students and even professionals. When someone gets really pressurized to achieve and succeed, at times they completely start under performing, why? Because they aren’t thinking of success rather they are thinking of the embarrassment associated to failing. Failing isn’t as bad as it sounds, honestly, think about it. Let’s say you made yourself a nice milkshake and it turned out really sweet. Next time when you try again you will add less sugar, and let’s assume second time it was too cold so you will be careful about the temperature of it. By the time you perfect it, you would exactly know how each outcome of failure would taste. For a person who succeeded the first time, they don’t have that insight.
So don’t wait! Start today on any project that you were too afraid of working on, anything small or big that you put aside because you thought it might not work. This is a road of learning and we must not be hesitant about taking a nice long drive. On the other hand, we as individuals should always encourage one another to speak about their failures and not see them as something that makes them feel less rather help them speak of it with confidence and see it as an opportunity that generated unusual outcomes. We have to be each other’s support group, help one another become confident in our lives. Confidence does not only come from succeeding but in proudly accepting the outcomes and knowing that we tried your best.