“Never accept failure, no matter how often it visits you. Keep on going.
Never give up.” - Michael Smurfit.
I want to thank you, my dear friend for the interest you have shown in
my writings. If you have been following my writings, you will notice
that in my last three write-ups, success was dealt with from different
inspiring angles. I hope we understood and were blessed via the article,
“My Thoughts on Success”? Today we are leaving success to delving into
the unpopular subject of failure. Most authors are too serious that they
skip the subject of failure at the expense of writing on success, et
al. How bad or otherwise do you think failure is? Rarely common in the
life of any successful person is the sour taste of experiencing failure
at a particular point in his or her life. Generally speaking, failure is
a familiar thing in this world of pens and papers. How about you have
you failed before? Yes, I have failed in a few occasions before now. I
submit that Failure of a man comes when it is all words, and no
performance! The gospel is that failure is not final.
Let us put it straight, what is the meaning of the word “failure”?
Here is the meaning of the word “failure” according to Microsoft
Encarta 2009 Dictionary.
1. Lack of success: a lack of success in or at something.
When a student for instance has his/her academic goals not realised at
the right time, such a student is believed to have failed. Failure is
always bitter, and hard to take, especially if that outcome does not
match what you are preparing to get. When I fail, as a person I pull
myself together and continue from there before I will know it, I would
have succeeded big time. I am writing this not because I love failure,
but because I want us to be educated thereby. I, the son of Odejayi
reject failure in my life in Jesus name, Amen.
2. Something less than that is
required: something that falls short of what is required or expected,
e.g. Failure will not be tolerated. Affirming that to fail at a
time in life does not make you to become a criminal. It is only showing
that your performance was below the acceptable standard. Despite his
successful feat in his time, Virgil, a Roman Poet (who lived from 70 to
19 BC) in his renowned work, ‘Aeneid’ defined failure as “the most
miserable thing I myself saw and of which I was a major
part”. You will keep failing, if you keep making excuses why you did not get it
right. I see Failure as man's -
Flop
Arising from
Indolent
Lifestyles +
Unserious &
Recurrent
Excuse-Making.
THE TWO SIDES OF FAILURE
I understand clearly what two things failure does? I see failure like a
two-sided coin. If an individual fails, the person will become
discouraged and this can make the person’s head to bow-down in despair.
On one side, failure can make you quit, and this is regarded as failing
perpetually. What I mean is a situation when people throw in the towel,
and never try again. This is always as a result of discouragement
witnessed by the individual. Elsewhere, you can take a cue from failure,
and use this failure to activate your successful feat. Here is an
excerpt of my life story for your education.
I can still remember vividly, on Thursday 10th of June, 1999 I wrote my
final Senior School Certificate Examination from St Patrick’s Grammar
School here in Ibadan. We were all basking in the euphoria of completing
the Secondary school. My colleagues went a-parting, others celebrated
it by attending ‘Live shows’ in halls outside the school vicinity,
others in joyous mood torn their school uniforms, while I went straight
home to sleep, since I had sleepless night before that day. I thought I
was going to succeed, but I was given the opposite of my expectation. On
Wednesday December 1, 1999, I went back to my Alma-Alta to check my
result and was given this run-down of results: Maths – E8, English – D7,
Physics – D7, Agric – C6, Economics – E8, Geography – D7, Biology – D7,
Chemistry – C6 and Yoruba – B2. I got home that day and was very
discouraged. Let me confess, I wept profusely because the result I got
was in sharp contrast to my expectation. To my utmost surprise, my
mother never abused me. She encouraged me, and instructed my other
siblings to celebrate me. I was given a good treat at home, with kind
words like – “We are celebrating you now with the hope of a good result
from you next time”. Unknowing to me, my mother went to report my
failure to two of my mentors. I have not told them before they started
changing my mind-set. They told me I can still succeed, citing relevant
life testimonies to buttress their points. There is a merit in failure
you know. I took up the challenge the following year. I went back to re-enroll and wrote WAEC GCE in year 2000 and came out brilliantly. I am very sure it was the agony of failure cum the encouragements from people that failure is not final that spurred me to excelled the year after. At least you have learnt one other better way of doing it rightly than the former.
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