Congratulations to all students who have cleared their HSLC and HSSLC Exams! As you reap the success of your hard work today, the exams have shown that success never comes too easy. It involves sacrifice, commitment and discipline. For those who did not clear the exams, seeing their successful friends run around hunting for admission in colleges might be making them feel depressed. Failure does happen and sometimes the reasons are genuine. Failure is not a bad thing and is experienced by everyone. In fact, failure is normal and learning to deal with failure is an important part of life.
Even Superman Fails
Today, entrepreneurship has become a trendy word. Everyone wants to become an entrepreneur, for they equate entrepreneurship with success, and invariably, lots of money. While it is all right to dream and strive in the pursuit of success, one must not forget that success does not come easy. Being a successful entrepreneur does not happen in a day. The reality of success means the possibility of failure. Failing to try for fear of making mistakes has prevented many people from becoming what they could really be.Most of the time, we hear or read stories about success; about the rewards of success; about the good times, etc. Somehow most people do not like to talk about their failures and bad experiences. Some may talk about it only when they finally succeed.By that time many would have forgotten about it, let alone want to talk or write about it.
In today’s competitive world ‘winners’ are admired whereas ‘losers’ are not tolerated. We have reached a stage where “Nobody should make a mistake” and people who make mistakes are either punished or ignored. Unless you are in the top ten, then you are a failure. Ironic as it may seem, but throughout the ages, human beings have only learnt through mistakes to reach where they are today. Amitabh Bachchan, king of the Indian Cinema, when he first started out after his graduation, was rejected for a job as a junior executive in a shop and consumer goods firm in Delhi. He then applied to be a radio announcer but was turned down by All India Radio because his voice was not right. He then joined the crowd of young hopefuls in trams, clutching testimonials and looking for a job in Calcutta. He finally decided to try his luck in Bollywood. He was nobody when he first started. He was scoffed at because of his tall uneven structure and laughed at as a “lamboo”. After a series of rejections, both in the film world and outside, Amitabh still refused to give up hope. He was then launched in the film “SAAT HINDUSTANI” which also went unnoticed. He then signed up for the film “BOMBAY TO GOA” for only Rs.500 which opened the door of the film industry to him. Finally, he was signed up for the film “ZANJEER” which broke the box-office, and a superstar was born! 10 years later, Amitabh retired from the film world. He then tried his hand in politics. Owing to his enormous popularity, not to mention the close association with Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, he was elected to parliament with a huge majority from his home city of Allahabad. His stint in politics did not last long as he was implicated in some scandals, and he finally gave up his parliamentary seat, vowing never to be involved in politics again. He later returned to Bollywood but a string of failed ventures and the loss incurred by his entertainment company in sponsoring the Miss Universe Contest held in Bangalore in 1996 made him bankrupt. In 1999, he came up with his own version of “Who wants To Be A Millionaire” TV Show called “Kaun Banega Crorepati” making him a multi-millionaire once again. It is not important how many times we fail, but how many times we wake up and overcome our failure with achievement or success.
The image that successful people are like “Superman” without making mistakes and possessing no weakness is not realistic in the real sense. People need to understand that mistakes and failings are perfectly normal and in fact occur more often amongst the achievers. Today, we find many books in the market that talk about success and inspire us to become successful. Some of them are ‘The Magic of Thinking Big’ by David J. Schwartz, ‘You Can Win’ by Shiv Khera etc. But as far as I know, it is actually surprising that so far, very few books have been published on the subject of failure. I guess the reason why it has not been widely written about is because our society has been programmed to shun failure. We look down on people who have failed just like we look at ‘drop outs’ differently. We put a high value on “success” but little or no value on “failure”.
As history has proven, great failures have made great men. There are hardly any great men who have not gone through hardships and failures in their lives. In fact, the value of failing is greater than that of success. But many people do not see it that way because the only misconception we have is to succeed in everything without facing any sort of obstacles.
I would like to urge our readers, especially the young generationh to accept your mistakes and failures because errors are normal and are bound to happen. The objective is to learn through mistakes and rectify them. Finally, hold on to your dreams until you achieve it and you will one day become the successful person you want to be.