THE SEESAW OF SUCCESS AND FAILURE

By

Meetu Kumar
Soft Skills Trainer
Icfai National College
Meerut
 

Success can be victory, it can be triumph, it can be achievement or realization of goals or it can be reaching to the zenith of the respective realms. Success may denote different things to different people. Success is speaking words of praise, doing the best you can or making your life a life of worth. As you embark on this journey of delivery, seeking an altogether new meaning relevant to your life and experience, all you need to keep in mind is one thing. It is, after all, your life. You need to search for your perception of success. There are few to define failure as a genesis of success Failure is disheartening, disappointing and frustrating for the average performers. Failure is the spark of the fire of success. The individual produces or contributes by leaps and bounds in order to be an extraordinary performer. The person, who embraces his failures, dwells and sails in the ocean of success. He, who makes fault and mistake a learning stone reach the pinnacle. The matter of fact is to know the line of attack to derive success of your dream.

Laurence Shames has rightly said, "Success and failure. We think of them as opposites, but they're really not. They're companions - the hero and the sidekick".

There was once a boy who wanted to seek the secret of success. One day he approached a wise man living up in the mountain. When he found the wise man at the hut, he asked, "Wise man, can you tell me the secret to becoming successful in life?" The wise man was silent for a while. After a moment of silence, the wise man led the young lad to a nearby river. They kept walking into the river until the boy's head was fully submerged in the water. The boy struggled to keep his head above the water. To his astonishment, the wise man did not help him. Instead, the wise man held the boy's head in the water. After a few minutes the wise man pulled the boy out of the water and they proceeded to walk back to the hut. At the hut the wise man asked the young boy what he desired most when his head was submerged in water. To this the young boy quickly responded, "Of course, I wanted to breathe, you old fool!" To which the wise man replied, "Son, if you desire success as much as you wanted to breathe, then you would have found the true secret of success."

There are infinite instances of paramount success that had risen from the genesis of failure. They had become extraordinary performers as they embraced their failures and never gave up. They persevered steadily and transformed their dreams to the level of their obsession to realize their aspirations.

Abraham Lincoln: Thought elected as a Whig Congressman, this self educated lawyer and onetime Militia officer had few other successes in life. He ran for the US Senate against Stephen Douglas but was bitterly defeated.

Thomas Edison: As a child he was gifted but was too disruptive for his school. As a result he was forced to leave school and his formal education ended at an early age. Those who knew him considered his crackpot ideas to be "crazy". His invention of the light bulb proved everyone wrong.

Adolph Hitler: Coming from humble backgrounds, this Austrian Peasant worked as a construction worker but was fired by bosses after other workers refused to work with him. He was homeless and impoverished. He barely survived as a poster artist. His attempts to enter art school failed. When World War 1 came, he was rejected as unfit by the Austrian Army. He did manage to join the German Army but never rose above Corporal.

Martin Luther: His father wanted him to be a lawyer or a merchant. Instead he pursued a religious career to the anger of his family. He lived an austere life until he posted his now famous Theses on the door of Wuttenburg Cathedral, sparking the protestant revolution.

Almost all the successful personalities or the organizations have enjoyed the seesaw of success and failure, then, why not we?

SUCCESS PRINCIPLES

Success is a matter of choice. If we have enough strong reasons, there is nothing that we cannot do. Once we have the reasons to do something, we will surely find the ways to do it. A mere wish would not make things happen. It is a burning desire, turned into an obsession that will generate the energy to bring you to achieve any goal that you may desire.

One cannot savor success unless one has tasted failure. The failures pave the path to success. Do not get disheartened by your failures but make them the spark to strive excellence. Make them your encouraging derives. Put them to your guard to insulate yourself from repeating the mistakes.

Thus one should have a belief that the life is a see-saw of success and failure wherein, everyone has to play his chance. The two principles endeavored into one's life can lead to the summit of achievement and successes, thereby resulting into an extraordinary performer. Desire your success to an end to breathe and rise up every time you fail .Make your dreams come true! Happy Journey! Success ahead! As life's one end has success and the other, failure.
 

Meetu Kumar
Soft Skills Trainer
Icfai National College
Meerut
 

Source: E-mail April 11, 2008

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