YOU FAILED. SO WHAT ? (Part I)

Some of us, who do fail, never forget the defeat and it remains at the back of our mind somewhere.

YOU FAILED. SO WHAT ?
(Part I)

“In order to succeed you must fail, so that you know what NOT to do the next time.”

~ Anthony D’Angelo

‘Failure’. One single word with so many emotions entangled inside. Fear, Frustration, Anguish, Regret, Shame and what not?!! I think this could be the toughest wor(l)d to deal with. And nobody would like to get a tag of a failure or a loser in his/ her life. Some of us, who do get the tag, never forget the defeat and it remains somewhere at the back of our mind. This burden keeps upsetting us every now and then. Sometimes it does feel too heavy to get it off our chest. Well, I was quite impressed to hear Andy Murray, the 2013 Wimbledon champion pronouncing his insight on failure during his post-match media briefing when he said, “That’s the story of my career, I’ve had a lot of tough losses, but the one thing I would say is that I improved a little bit every year. They weren't major improvements, massive changes, but every year my ranking was going in the right direction. I was going a little bit further in slams.’’

‘Devdas in Banvaas’ could be cool to visit
but it’s not so very cool place to stay.

If truth be told, failure is the part and parcel of life. Haven’t you experienced everybody fails at something in some way or the other? And it’s not that easy to escape from. See a toddler and watch him walk the very first time. He doesn’t start running from day one. He tries and tries and tries and one day he walks his first baby steps after many failed attempts. But in our case, as we grow up, we start taking our failures way too seriously. And I think it's no accident that we think this way. Sometimes even the slightest tiff with the destiny appears the ‘be-all and end-all’. On the flip side, these so called ‘failed souls’ disassociate themselves from others, get isolated and start living in a ‘bitter-zone’. They become ‘Devdas in Banvaas’ in no time. As if their life starts there and ends there only. Mind you, ‘Devdas in Banvaas’ could be cool to visit but it’s not so very cool place to stay.

Who said that life is all bouquets and no brickbats? I want to tell you in very certain terms that it is no Yash Chopra movie where everything seems rosy and looks picture perfect. Have I never failed in my life? Not a chance! And when I recall I come to terms with myself hitting the wall time and again. I have had my own share of ups and downs in my life. I fell on my face so many times; I failed so many times, I had so many sleepless nights. I know those experiences stayed with me for long and sometimes even longer than required. And the pain continued to engulf me at times. No doubt, life teaches everyone the hard way. And you feel the pinch. That apart, my belief of never underestimating myself gave me enough power to sail through the roughest times. That was my way of dealing with it and that’s what kept me going. I admit that my pain, my scars, my wounds and my hurts defined me as a person who I am today and shaped me for better (for sure).

Failure is not falling down but refusing to get up.

Now let’s face it and be brutally honest. Consider these reality bytes before branding your life a total disaster. Isaac Newton was a wiz at math, but he did not excel when it came to other subjects. He never thrived in school and when he was once put in charge of running the family farm, he failed terribly. Albert Einstein didn’t speak until he was four and didn’t read until he was seven. He was expelled from school as his teachers said he would “never amount too much.” Walt Disney was fired from the Kansas City Star in 1919 because, his editor said, he “lacked imagination and had no original ideas.” And his first animation company Laugh-O-Gram went bankrupt in 1923. In 1972, Bill Gates launched Tarf-O-Data, but the company shut down soon. At age 21, Steve Jobs co-founded Apple only to be fired. Narayana Murthy set up Softronics in the late 1970s but the company got closed in a year. Long story short, “Failure is not falling down but refusing to get up.”

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts."

~ Winston Churchill

[to be continued]

 If you really liked this blog post and wish to share your experiences/ remarks/ views with me, you are most welcome. Write to me at pdpbygauravmisra@gmail.com.