"Failure": A Stepping Stone to Success

Wikipedia defined failure as the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, and may be viewed as the opposite of success. It also refers to a condition or fact of not achieving the desired end or ends. Failure is best conceptualized as deviation from expected and desired results. Everyone fears failure. Many people think failure makes ones existence unsatisfied. Failing well though breeds success. Breakthroughs depend on it. The best and successful companies embrace their mistakes and learn from them.

Amy Edmonson, a professor at Harvard Business School who has studied how organizations learn from failure, says "Failure provides more learning in a strictly logical or technical sense" than success. "It is a principle of the scientific method that you can only disconfirm, never confirm, a hypothesis." In the modern world, a mind shift we need is realization that failure is the rule rather than the exception. This begs intellectual honesty. Failure is a promising area of investigation because it is such a cmmon experience. Yet, it is a secret that is never spoken out loud. It is not difficult to be definitely tentative, turn means into ends, be less prejudiced but more discrinamatory. transform work into play, and celebrate mistakes. We have to appreciate then that failure is not avoidable, objective, a single event, a stigma, the enemy or final.


Committing mistakes usually makes oneself less popular. It is, however, an opportunity for one to gain new lessons and experiences leading to success. Everyone's committed mistake is a new lesson learned- a step forward to gaining success. Take the case of the famous Thomas Edison who experienced failures in his experiments but never thought of giving up until he succeeded. If success and failure are then relatives, failure is not inherently bad. Indeed, it has many advantages. Failure often softens hearts, develops maturity, broadens thinking, offers insights, prompts innovation, reveals ability, inspires, reinforces the need for risk, builds courage, fortifies, opens other opportunities brings unexpected benefits, pushes the envelope of future performance, liberates, makes success sweeter, and is preferable to bitterness and regret.

According to Albert Einstein, "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new". This relates to the two benefits of failure. First, you what doesn't work and second, it gives you opportunity to try a new approach. Lloyd James expressed that the men who try to do something and fail are definitely than those who try to do nothing and succeed. Ellen G. White revealed that many become inefficient by evading responsibilities for fear of failure. Thus, they fail of gaining that education which results from experience, and which reading and study and all the advantages otherwise gained, cannot be given.

Truman Capote said that "Failure is the condiment that gives success its "flavor". Winston Churchill reiterated that success is consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. Thomas J. Watson then recommended a formula for success: "Double your rate of failure. You're thinking of failure as the enemy of success but it is not at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it. So go on and make mistakes; make all you can. Because, remember that is where you find success."