“There is no failure for the man who realizes his power, who never knows when he is beaten; there is no failure for the determined endeavor; the unconquerable will. There is no failure for the man who gets up every time he falls, who rebounds like a rubber ball, who persists when everyone else gives up, who pushes on when everyone else turns back.”—
That’s great for a greeting card (though a little long), but for the real world, failure is always an option. And, really, in most cases you can’t have success without failure. Pretending “The Indominable Human Spirit™” is somehow all-powerful is to live in a fool’s paradise.
And YES, it still counts as a failure if you fail once and succeed the next time you try.
Why? Because when you fail, you learn. If you get it right the first time you don’t need to learn more. Therefore, you’re not as prepared for future problems.
Failure is also an important part of humility and confidence. If you never fail, you think you can do anything. Which is great until you run into something you truly can’t handle. Which is no big deal, unless you’re risking other people’s time, effort, money, livelihood or their lives.
This kind of “never say die” attitude also forgets the sacrifices that are often required along the path to success. It speaks nothing of the friends lost along the way, or the loves lost. It ignores a basic human need—to *be* human. You know what I mean—when you’re so busy working your ass off that you realize it’s been months since you’ve just sat and read a book or watched a TV show, or had quiet time with a loved one. You find yourself working so hard that you discover you’ve forgotten a good chunk of what makes life worth living: pleasure, joy, learning. One time I had a very quick deadline—I worked my ass off and had a medical issue come up in the middle of the project. It suddenly became an issue of taking care of myself or finishing my play. So, I finished the play and risked my health. Luckily, I got better on my own (I didn’t have insurance, so there’s not much I could have done about it, anyway).
Speaking of health, there’s also the reality of fate.
What do you do when you work your ass off your entire life on something only to see it wiped away by an earthquake, a hurricane or some other natural disaster? What if you get cancer? How do you “get back up” after you die of cancer?
Suddenly, the advice “NEVER GIVE UP!” means exactly nothing.
Backing away from that, what if someone just wants to be a dick to you?
We all want to feel so powerful—like we can do anything we set our minds to. For some of us, it’s downright debilitating. We sacrifice so much because we are raised to think anything was possible. We shun friends, family, loves, and just focus on our goals and dreams, thus sacrificing much of what our lives seem to be meant for. And for what?
Well, look around you, kids! We can fail at plenty.
Hell, we can’t even get along with our neighbors these days because we’re too busy sticking our nose in their business—worried about what sexual/political/religious orientation they are, rather then just trying to learn from them and help them learn from you.
No, the only true path to success is failure, preparation and luck. You need the first to get to the second and that is only worth it if you trip over the third and only then are you good to go.
The vast majority of people are not “successful” the way most of society seems to define it.
Of course, every one’s life is littered with failures and successes depending on how you define both words. So… ignore everything I just said! ;)
