Have you ever failed before? We all have. “The only person free from failure is the man in the grave’’.
Whether you have failed in life does not matter as much as what you make out of it. The truth is failure irrespective of how bad it might seem to be, could be transformed from a stumbling block into a stepping stone if you know how to go about it.
Remember the story of the 16th American president, the one who recorded so many failures in life before he clinched the presidency of his country.
Of course you probably do. let us take another look at the profile of Abraham Lincoln, as contained in his autobiography:
Failed in Business at 31.
Was defeated in a legislative race at age 32.
Failed again in business at age 34.
Overcame the death of his sweetheart at age 35.
Had a nervous breakdown at age 36.
Lost an election at age 38.
Lost a congressional race at age 43.
Lost a congressional race at age 46.
Lost a congressional race at age 48.
Lost a senatorial race at age 58.
Failed in an effort to become vice –president at age 56.
Lost a senatorial race at age 58.
Was elected president of united state at age 60.
Is that all there is to it? Definitely not one of the greatest scientists the world has ever known was said to have failed ten thousand time.{ten thousand! At times I believe this is an exaggeration!!]before he was able to invent the incandescent lamp.
Thomas Edison, when asked later by a reporter.
What he felt of his failing so many times, said:”I did not fail, I only learnt ten thousand ways how not to make a lamp that would work”.
The British prime minister, winton churchchill, also had his own fair share of failure.
Before he became what he is known for today, it is recorded that he spent three year longer than his colleagues at Harrows school because he failed his eight grade three time in a row. On the experience, it was written that the extra time spent at Harrow’s gave Churchill a grasp of grammar and sentence construction much more than was ever achieved, enabling him create literary master pieces.
Success and failure, as in the words of Richard Watson, a British columinist, are inextricably linked. A counterpart of his, an bruce,on the same issue,says.’’The first step to success is always found in failure. Every successful person on earth has experienced failure. ……it is thanks to their failure that they eventually succeed’’
The truth of the matter is that if you are afraid of failing you might be unconsciously repealing your personal success. You can hardly get one without the other. They are two sides of the same coin.
As the renowned author, Samuel smiles put:
‘’We learn from failure more than from success.’’
We often discover what will do by finding out what will not do and probably he who never made a mistake, never made a discovery.’’
Even on the home front our sage, the late chief obafemi Awolowo, once said: ‘There is no glory never failing. But glory lies in being able to rise whenever one falls’’
A good example of deriving success from failure is found in the discovery of Christopher Columbus. He set out on a journey to prove that the world was a sphere.
To prove this, he said he could reach India by sailing westward from spain.on landing on an island, he though the island to be
indian,and returned to Spain with gold and valuable items, only to discover later that although he had failed in his mission, he had done something more: he had discover the great land, America!
Just as authors w.clement stone and Napoleon Hill, who recorded this event in their book, success through a positive mental attitude, put it: You do not need to be ashamed to be a failure like Chris Columbus’’
If you recorded a failure you will be denied the opportunity of learning from what latter has to teach.
This will only put you at the risk of experiencing failure in a greater form in future.
If you really want to make it, yes, make it big in life, then you must be ready to embrace failure because those who fail and fail to give up end up succeeding. Think about it.
