Read This If You Feel Like A Failure
Failure is Subjective
Failure is subjective.
It could mean one thing to you and something totally different to me.
But the one consistent thing is the suck.
Nobody likes failing.
Actually, let me rephrase that…
Nobody likes feeling like a failure. It’s the same way no one likes feeling sick.
In an ideal world, things would work out as you want.
But as you know, the world is far from ideal.
The good thing is what I said at the beginning.
Failure is subjective.
This means you can change your state by simply altering how you define it.
Here are some interesting takes that can get you started…
Failure is your biggest teacher
Society does an amazing job of putting emphasis on success, and it makes sense why…
Hope sells.
This is only amplified by the invention of social media — a digital place where people can decide what aspect of their lives to show you.
Thomas Edison didn’t have this luxury. He was once asked about his missteps, which we could infer meant they were known…
His response became one of the most quoted sayings regarding failure —
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
This comment gives us an interesting look into the mind of Edison and how he thought of failure.
TLDR: he saw it as a learning opportunity.
Bill Gates seemingly concurred with this sentiment when he labeled success as “a lousy teacher” who’s capable of deceiving the smartest of people into thinking they can’t lose.
Failure is better than success for learning.
Studies show that knowledge gained from failures lasts longer than those from success.
Instead of thinking of failure as a hindrance, see it for what it is…
A learning opportunity.
Failure teaches you to be kind to yourself
It’s easy to take things for granted when you’ve never truly experienced the grit of failure.
This is partially the reason 50 Cent now refers to his eldest son, Marquise, as his estranged son.
50 Cent, a heavyweight in hip-hop culture, and his former girlfriend split in 2008.
A nasty back and forth ensued in which a young Marquise Jackson decided to side with his mother throughout the battle.
Things seemingly died down for some time, but the feud came back into the limelight in 2022 when Marquis, who was 25 then, came out to clarify the backstory of the feud between him and his father…
His complaint was he felt abandoned and left to struggle with his mother since the $6,700 a month his father contributed in child support payments wasn’t enough to sustain the New York City lifestyle he had become accustomed to.
Marquis, who was fortunate to be born to a successful father, judged and approved himself by material things — he can’t be kind to himself unless he’s got more materials.
50, on the other hand, had to grind for what he’s got. He even got shot nine times.
The struggles he went through constantly pushed him to re-evaluate his values in life, such as music and business.
Failure enables you to learn more about who you are and how you define yourself.
When you know who you are, it’s much easier to be kinder to yourself since you know what you’ve been through.
You can only know success when you’ve failed
Jordan narrated over a video for a 1997 Nike commercial…
He said, “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
What Jordan was explaining was the dualities of life.
As part of our existence, we experience light and dark, birth and death, joy and sadness, and so on.
The balance of what we want and don’t want is what’s referred to as duality.
Too much of one thing can be harmful.
For example, if you expose yourself to too much light, you can go blind. Thus, darkness is required to balance out the scales.
What Jordan is implying in his narration is that the only reason he’s got significant success is cos it’s balanced out by significant failure.
This explains the popular saying, “There’s no light without dark.”
See your failures as the necessary dark you must pass through to achieve success.
Failure isn’t always “failure”
Coca-Cola is one of the most popular drinks in the world…
But it was birthed out of failure.
In 1866, an American pharmacist named John Pemberton, who was injured in the Civil War and had developed a morphine dependency, sought to curb the issue by inventing an effective opiate-free alternative.
Yup, Coca-Cola was supposed to be a painkiller.
The first product Pemberton created was essentially French wine.
At the rise of the temperance movement, Pemberton sought to replace the wine in his formula with an alcohol-free alternative — this was when he substituted wine for sugar syrup.
As he tinkered with the formula, he accidentally mixed the concoction with carbonated water.
After tasting it, he decided to market the beverage as a fountain drink instead of a medication, naming it “Coca-Cola” after its original ingredients.
Pemberton failed at his attempt to make a painkiller but succeeded in creating a drink known all over the world.
Your failures aren’t always failures.
Failure is a mandatory step on the journey
The most popular children’s fiction series of all time is Harry Potter.
But did you know the author, JK Rowling, wrote the book at one of the lowest points in her life?
She was unemployed, raising a child alone, and suffering from clinical depression.
In her own words, she was as “poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless.”
The first manuscript of Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone was rejected by 12 publishing houses.
It was eventually accepted by Bloomsbury, but Rowling’s editor suggested she got a day job as they didn’t believe she’d be able to earn enough from writing to support herself.
Well, that book became one of the top five bestselling books of all time, selling over 100 million copies.
It and its sequels made Rowling the first person in the world to become a US-dollar billionaire by writing fiction.
Failure isn’t the end. It’s merely preparation for the success to come.
Final thoughts
Nobody wants to feel like a failure…
But if you’re attempting something you’ve never done before, you’re guaranteed to fail.
This doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing.
Failure is a necessary part of life, even though it sucks to go through.
A simple change in perspective is all it takes to see it in a better light and make it work in your favor.
Thanks for reading!
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