We Always Pass Failure on Our Way to Success
Published on : Monday 01-02-2021
When confronted with some setback, self-belief and faith will provide us the strength we need and rekindle the hope in us, asserts A V Rajabahadur.
We discover many truths as our lives move on. While we accept some of them, it is difficult to accept others. One such difficult-to-accept truth is that not all things with which we are concerned are under our control. Things that we cannot control and our inability to accept that harsh reality affect our peace of mind and our morale and lead to disappointments and loss of self-confidence. When our sincere efforts do not result in the anticipated success we feel dejected, even if the failure is due to factors that are beyond our control. In order to avoid getting into such a situation, we should not let the failure take control of us. We should realise that we have control over our attitudes, efforts, decisions, and actions, and not their outcome. Bhagavad Gita expresses this sentiment succinctly, “To action alone hast thou a right and never at all to its fruits…..” Sir William Osler, a Canadian Physician and Medical Historian, has paraphrased the thought thus: “To have striven, to have made an effort, to have been true to certain ideals – this alone is worth the struggle. We are here to add what we can to, not to get what we can from, life.”
In order to contextualise, imagine driving your car on the way to attend an all-important job interview. In addition to preparing for the interview and starting the trip on time, you are responsible to ensure that the vehicle that you are driving is in roadworthy condition and that you are driving safely and not rashly, following the traffic rules, etc. Despite complying with all the essential-mandates for safe driving, an accident may happen due to extraneous factors, such as reckless driving on the part of others on the road and prevent you from attending the interview that would have given a big boost to your professional career. If as a result you miss getting the job that you have been hoping for and striving hard, you may feel bad about the incident and missed opportunity but cannot blame yourself for it. It is an unfortunate accident that was beyond your control. Accepting reality and focusing on other opportunities is the best option. Brooding over the missed chance will be counterproductive. The only remedy is to accept the situation, recover from the incident quickly, and carry on with our life.
It is necessary for us to be mentally prepared to accept that in life certain things may go wrong at times. Entropy, a measure of disorder in a closed system, will always increase with time is a scientific fact. We live in a closed system and, hence, disorder will only increase as our life’s journey continues. For us to achieve our set goal all our efforts and related extraneous factors must fall in the proper place; that probability is low. Murphy’s Law also reinforces the same truth; “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” Hence to expect that things will always work out the way we want is a too-idealistic expectation.
We have to be mentally prepared to carry on with our lives despite setbacks. We should not allow our mind to get seized of them and control our thoughts. When confronted with such situations, it is good to recall the wise words of Reinhold Niebuhr, an American Theologian; “Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
We all have our aspirations and we are entitled to set personal goals, as without aspiring we will achieve nothing. However, we have to be realistic about our aspirations and work on our strengths to realise them. It is necessary to channelise our energy into the things over which we have control so that we can be more effective. We may aim high, but we must also take into consideration the consequences of not realising the goal and be prepared to handle possible setbacks. With preparation, we may be able prevent the worst case scenario from happening. Good preparation includes identifying the problems and working out the approaches to improve the chances of success through enhanced efforts. By directing our energy into the things that we control, we will be much more effective. While we have to set goals and plan and strive diligently with perseverance and resilience for our goals to be realised, we must also admit that some goals may elude us due to factors that are beyond our control. One of the factors for our failure may be just our bad luck. Such is life!
When a thing does not turn out the way we want, it is better to accept the same and focus on the other goals that are under our control so that our efforts are more productive. I believe that the mental quality we need to enjoy peace of mind is to accept reality when it stares at us and not feel bitter about it. In a nutshell, and in George Orwell’s words, “Happiness can only exist in acceptance”, and in the words of Bridgett Devoue, “We are only haunted by the things we refuse to accept.”
Accepting a failure is never easy. When we are not successful in our endeavours, we often tend to attribute the same to failure on our part. Acceptance does not mean shying away from the struggle. It only means accepting the reality. We have to draw the appropriate lessons from that experience and make necessary course corrections.
History is replete with stories of eminent people who had faced failures in their lives and yet went on to scale great heights and emerged highly successful and illustrious. Their lives act as guideposts for our meaningful lives. Saga of Albert Einstein is a shining example of someone who went on to become famous despite failures. Albert Einstein, one of the greatest scientists, worked on many odd jobs before getting employed as a patent clerk. He was expelled from school for his disobedient behaviour and Zurich Polytechnic School refused admission. Despite these setbacks in life, he went on to develop the famous theory of General Relativity and win the Nobel Prize. His failures did not deter him from moving ahead. His spectacular success after initial failures is a testimony to his ability to treat “Success is failure in progress” and focus with perseverance on his strengths.
For those who have striven to achieve a certain goal with perseverance, it is not easy to accept failure. However it will be unproductive to worry about it. Worrying about unsuccessful endeavours saps our energy and does not in any way help us. Worry, as Somers Roche has said “is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.” The way out is to acknowledge the reality and switch off our thoughts about the unsuccessful endeavours. It will be immensely helpful if we accept that to lead a meaningful life one need not succeed in every endeavour of ours. When confronted with some setback, self-belief and faith will provide us the strength we need and rekindle the hope in us.
The following verse, attributed to have been written way back in the 8th century CE by Shantideva, a Buddhist monk and scholar at Nalanda, is a source of inspiration to all those who feel dejected because of being denied the fruits of their labour.
If there's a remedy when trouble strikes,
What reason is there for dejection?
And if there is no help for it,
What use is there in being glum?
Rajabahadur V Arcot, an Independent Industry Analyst/Columnist and Business Consultant, is Life Member of ISA and Member of ISA Smart Manufacturing & IIoT Division, an ISA accredited mentor and trainer. He writes industry and technology trend articles, market research reports, case studies, white papers, and automation & manufacturing IT insights.
The article first appeared on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/we-always-pass-failure-our-way-success-a-v-rajabahadur/