I have recently discovered why it is so important to learn how to fail. This occurred after a softball game that I went to a few weeks ago. My coworkers have a team and play in a local slow pitch league. They’re pretty good, I have to admit, and they went up against an undefeated team. Get this: we won! We were so proud and happy—that is, until a man in his forties started to try and fight my friend who is in his early twenties. My friend responded with “I get it man, it’s hard to lose. Good game though”.
It could have easily ended there, but that was not the case. Instead, this grown man decided to name call and try to start a fight with someone half his age. He cursed and yelled while there were children present. This man was not there to play, he was there to win. Losing conjured up an anger that caused for a group of twenty somethings to recognize his inability to accept failure. This man could and would not accept failing. He even tried to protest the game and failed once more. Everyone was surprised by his behavior, and then the discussion came. He had never learned to accept failure. This is what I and my peers learned from watching this man. Failure is something everyone must learn to accept. No one gets anywhere without failing at least once. Failure builds character and teaches people not to give up.
The middle-aged man at the slow pitch softball game could not see the benefits in failing. His team walked into the game not believing they could ever lose and that is why they lost. They didn’t think that they had to try because their opponents, unlike them, had lost before. Knowing defeat makes people aware that failure is possible, that they must try for success. I don’t believe the man at the game ever expected to lose because he had not ever endured it.
Failing is an important part of living. Learning how to fail is a vital part in building character and understanding. It keeps people from making fools of themselves, and allows for an overall ability to congratulate those who did not fail. If you wind up in the middle of a parking lot picking on someone half your age for finding success you have failed at failing. Which is the worst type of failure. No one succeeds all the time, just like no one fails all the time. Learning to bask in success and failure displays maturity and an understanding of human tendencies. Failure is something that everyone must embrace. For some it happens before kindergarten, for others it happens in the middle of a parking lot, near the old Fresno dump, beer in hand, and mind geared toward bringing those around them down. Either way, failure allows people to understand the ladder of success more deeply. Failure means the lack of success, but learning to fail is a success in itself.
