March 5, 2007

Failure Is An Advantage

Nobody is perfect, we have all made plenty mistakes and many failures. Sometimes it is very easy to feel low once we fail at something, it can really lower our self esteem. However, seeing failure in that particular view is of course only going to bring more experiences to match that.

There is a different way to look at failure. When we fail at something, we shouldn’t say or believe that we are failures. We are human beings, not failures. A failure is something that you mistakingly do, it is not who you are. God created humans, animals, land, water, trees, air, etc. Nowhere does it say he created failures. I believe a great way to look at failure is to not see it at all. Failure is not real. Look at everything as a success, not as a failure. We misinterpret failure. When we get a result different than what we expect we usually think of it as a failure. Although, it is not failure, it is successfully doing something different than the intended result. When you run a race and finish in second place, you don’t lose, you successfully win at second place. I could go all day with different examples, but hopefully you get the point.

The reason why I say that failure is an advantage is because when you so call “fail” at doing something, if you were aware of what you did wrong, then you are ahead of the game. The reason you are ahead is because you know exactly what not to do. When you know what not to do, and you learn what to do in whatever it is you are attempting, you have an advantage. If someone was very successful at the same thing you were attempting and they never failed at it, they know less than what you do. Once you learn what not to do, and what to do in your situation you will never fail because you know both sides. Unlike the other person who just knows what to do, if he does what he’s not supposed to do he won’t know that he is doing something wrong. This is the reason why you always here of those people who grew up doing the wrong things, and then as they are older they are the wisest people you know. The reason is because they grew up doing things a certain way. They learned that the particular way they were choosing to live their life was wrong. They found out what the right way was, and then later held on to what they knew was right. Children who grow up poor and want to make a change to better their life have an advantage because they know certain things they must not do. Not only that, but I’m sure they have plenty of motivation to do whatever it takes to get out of their situation compared to someone who is comfortable.


So remember, failure doesn’t really exist, it is successfully receiving a different result. Once we receive a different result, we should remember what we did wrong, and then begin to learn what is right. If you seek, you will find. Search for the correct way, and the door will be opened to you.

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[...] of his posts, Failure Is An Advantage, really caught my eye. After you read it you’ll understand that to be very successful you [...]

March 23, 2007

Peggy :

Great post! I couldn’t help thinking, as I read, of a friend who recently divorced her husband of 16 years. He had begun using his fists on her during their first year of marriage. She believed his apologies and excuses because her commitment to the marriage was strong, and she believed that she could change him. She offered unconditional love, became sensitive to what seemed to provoke him, etc. Over the years, there would be periods when he did not use physical violence, but of course he had no need to. She reacted to the slightest glower or tensing of his muscles. And he continued verbal abuse and harassment.

She was very courageous, finally, in divorcing him and is only now discovering how he had “trained her like a dog”, but in fact, of course, she had trained herself.

She ‘failed’ in her goal of a happy marriage but in the secondary goals that developed — of appeasing him, enduring his abuse and blocking in her own mind the horrors of the situation — she was indeed so very ’successful’.

Sorry for the long comment but I think your post is so provocative and the principle could be applied to so many different life situations!

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