What does the word failure mean to you?
Many students can associate “failure” with fear.
Why? Because students are constantly lectured, hinted and told that failure will get you nowhere.
We are told success is what brings happiness.
Who are the failures?
The homeless, criminals, the unintelligent, the divorced, and the ones who didn’t follow their dreams, etc.
Those who failed are looked down upon. They are disliked and judged by many people. We call them the underachievers, the losers, or the disappointments.
“Failure leads to an unsuccessful life,” family, friends and professors may say.
However, we all make failures.
Little failures here and there or huge failures.
We have all experienced failures in some way.
Failed: careers, relationships, exams, job opportunities, actions and ______.
It’s common in every one’s life to fail in some way. We are not perfect human beings and we don’t always get what we want.
Many of us try so hard to not fail. Why? To make others happy. To feel worthy. We want all A’s, golden stars, a thumbs up, a certificate and a “good job”.
We associate failure with losers. If we do fail, the earth feels against us. We feel unworthy, stupid and depressed.
Many successful people were once “failures”.
Failures are good.
— Oprah Winfrey was once fired from her first TV job. She is now one of the most successful and wealthy women on earth.
— J.K. Rowling was a single mom living off welfare when she first started writing “Harry Potter”. She is now a billionaire and wrote a series for the novel.
Vincent Van Gogh, a beautiful distressed artist who never got praised for his work during his lifetime, died poor and unknown. It wasn’t after he died that people started to recognize his work and is now one of the most famous and best painters in the world.
There are many men and women in this world who are an example of not letting their failures bring them down. Not all are famous and rich but they still have somehow impacted a small number of people, which is still important.
In a study made by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, researchers found relatives and friends of 10 men who had committed suicide and conducted interviews to find the purpose of their suicide.
“The main finding suggests that developmentally, these young men appeared to have compensated for their lack of self-worth by exaggerating the importance of success, thus developing a fragile, achievement-based self-esteem in adulthood which left them vulnerable in the face of rejection and perception of failure,” according to PsychCentral.com.
Do not let your failures define you.
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” - Winston S. Churchill
Some people who can’t take failures in their life cross the line and either develop a mental issue or tragically kill themselves.
Failures are temporary. Anyone can rise from mistakes and keep going on in life. Sure, you can let mistakes and failures smack you in the face but be the braver and bigger person to get up from it.
