Role of Failure in Shaping your Success

Ankita Pathak April 6, 2023October 11, 2023 Examination, Failure Stories, failure to success story, Knowledge, story of failure to success, Success, Success or Failure, Success stories

Every person faces failure in their lives and the first question that comes to mind is – Do our unsuccessful efforts make us successful? Such experiences of failure can be associated with school, college, competitive exam preparation, or even personal fronts. How many times have you analysed the role of each failure in shaping your next success? You know you will hardly find people who have done that because we live in a world that is obsessed with achieving success and becoming successful. Since our childhood, we have heard that we must be good at almost everything, and no matter what you do in life; you must always come out with excellence in each stage of life. Most individuals believe the common saying that only losers face failures. Therefore, we try to hide it and provide more than the required importance to our failures.

How often has someone told you to first fail and then succeed, as failure in itself is an experience that makes success more real in the present times?

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.” — J.K. Rowling

Think of that one person you know who is successful but never failed. Well, it will be hard to find out one such person. Most of us are aware of the popular Abraham Lincoln. However, do you know his failure story? Lincoln faced several defeats throughout his life, starting with his birth in poverty. He lost eight elections, twice failed in business, and suffered a nervous breakdown, but did he give up? NO. This is why we all know about him today. Thomas Edison who was an inventor and a businessman, failed a thousand times while inventing the light bulb. Among his 1,093 patents, a handful of them were successful. However, the best part is that he found something new and valuable every time he failed in his trials. In this way, you will instill a lot of confidence in your exam preparation in the best possible manner.

In a similar way, success or failure in the examination should not discourage you at all as several success stories of several students took up failure and converted it into success through their dedication and hard work. So, let us now see the role that failure plays in shaping your success for a promising career ahead.

Failure teaches you more than success:

Unlike success, which gives immense pleasure and happiness, failure gifts you the beauty of experience, which stays with you for a long period. Every failure indicates your genuine willingness to try something new. Trying and failing are two of the most important teachers in your life who teach you how to walk the path to success. Failure encourages better thinking. It forces you to look back and ask why that work didn’t. What went wrong? When you try, you learn. When you fail, you learn even more. So, do not fear the failures. You will soon become an educated and well-aware student of life. Some of the life lessons that failure teaches us include the following:

Experience and Knowledge: Many times, we wonder what guarantees 100% success. The only answer to this question is a failure. When we fail at something, we gain first-hand experience performing it and gain the knowledge to work with precision. Failure alters your frame of mind and reflects the real nature of things and their importance in our lives. Through the induction of pain and sorrow, failure transforms and improves our inner well-being, thus creating failure-to-success stories. Failure brings with it the knowledge that can be harnessed in the future to overcome failure itself.
Therefore, no matter how much we criticize failures in life, it is that one thing, which helps us find success in our future endeavours. We all long for something big in our lives and once we achieve that we become fearless. Well, this is not true all the time. Even though he had established the huge empire of Apple, Steve Jobs got fired from his own company. His failure made him realize that his passion for work exceeded his disappointment of failure greatly. The experience and knowledge that he gained after being fired from his own company made him strong and he went on to establish future ventures like NeXT and Pixar. Steve Jobs said in his interview: “I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me.”
Resilience: We do not know about our internal strength until we are stuck in a situation that tests our mental and physical strength. Failure is one such test of life and there is always at least one failure behind success. Failure is a necessity of life as it makes one resilient and strong. The person uses mental strength and behaviour to promote personal assets and protect himself from the potential negative effects of failure. In the competitive world, one needs to create a story of failure to success, in order to achieve the dream life and success. It requires a great amount of work and effort to be the best at what you are aiming for and thus the characteristic of resilience can help us in so many ways in life. Resilience helps an individual set the game up to win and breed success. This way, such behaviour leads to the birth of success stories.

We have all heard of JK Rowling, who is the author who is behind the beautiful Harry Potter fiction series. Well, today we all know about her writing skills and her current quality of life. However, behind this enormous success, she went through a hell lot of pain and misery. In 1995, when she went around to get her book published 12 publishing houses rejected her with replies such as ‘It is too difficult for children, “It’s too long”, “Children will not be interested in it.” She had to rewrite the first chapter of the book 15 times before Bloomsbury agreed to publish her book. She later in an interview mentioned that ‘Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.’

Growth and Value: Failure makes one mature and helps in one’s growth as a human being. Our lives are designed to grow and improve. Almost everything on the earth grows with time. Growth is a fundamental part of all of us as without that we cannot improve or grow in our lives. Failure is the teacher that teaches the growth fundamentals and instills the required growth in our lives. Every student turned successful professional has a unique story and one can learn a lot from the failure to success stories of students. Therefore, you must dig deep into your desires and the path to achieve the desired success.

We have all heard of the famous Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam who was the former President of India. However, do you know about his struggles? As a kid, he wanted to become a pilot but he failed to realize it as he bagged the ninth position when only eight slots were available in that particular attempt at IAF. In addition, he faced one of the biggest failures of his life as a project Director of SLV3 in Shriharikota. The flight was aborted 317 seconds after the satellite was launched and the remains of the test vehicle plashed into the Indian Ocean, some 560 km away. The whole nation watched as his worst fear came alive. At the national level, he took full responsibility for such a huge failure. However, do you know that this failure did not demoralize him? No. It did not demoralize him.

No, one year later they launched the ‘Rohini Satellite’ and added a new chapter in the history of India. Well, this is how one grows after failure. If Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Sir had given up on his dreams due to one failure then we would have lost a great scientist, teacher, writer, and the honourable President of our country. So take stock, learn and adapt: Look at failure analytically, suspending feelings of anger, frustration, blame, or regret, and learn to apply the newfound insight to go forward. This way, one day your real-life stories can also become stories of failure to success.

Must Read: How to keep yourself motivated even after successive failures

Changes Your Mindset and Builds Your Personality:

People associate failure with defeat and they think they must now stop and complete the task in their hand at the earliest. Failure does not mean the end; it just means you need to take a different road. We place ourselves in a negative frame of mind about failure. Right from our childhood, we are asked to follow famous people. We were never allowed to dream of something huge or different. If one did so, society tagged him/her as a crazy man/woman.

Well, failure gives you this freedom. Failure helps you think of what went wrong and how it can be improved, thus making the discussion of failure vs success a fruitful one. It changes your basic mindset and helps you build up into a person who is fearless, stronger, and ready to face any obstacles to create a failure to success story. Many famous people only after failure have realized after a series of failures about the real purpose of their lives. Failure brings you a state of mind when you feel you have lost everything and nothing could be worse than this. Therefore, in such a situation instead of looking for all the options you want to take up something that you are passionate about and would like to give your heart and soul to the respective activity and task. Failure brings us out of our comfort zone and challenges us to take great leaps in life.

Originally, a barrister by profession, Mahatma Gandhi was not a strong lawyer as he was unable to cross-question his witnesses. After spending some time doing regular work, he went to South Africa where he developed his political skills. During his low time, when he was thrown out off the train in South Africa, he realized that he wanted to fight for people’s rights and make his country independent from rulers at that time. It was not a cakewalk for him even there and his Satyagraha movement was fraught with difficulties even in India. Despite having failed so many times, we all still remember him as the ‘Father of Nation’. It is due to his sheer dedication and his hard work.

Failure is a fascinating thing. People want to avoid it. Yet if you ask, of course, it’s the best teacher you could ever have. “Failure is a weird word. I don’t see it as a failure. I see it as a natural evolution of a solution to a problem.” The world’s biggest leaders before they became successful also went through a phase of epic failure. While we all look up to them and celebrate their success what we overlook is the path that got them there. It is the drive and determination that you show after failure that determines your success in life. Therefore, do not let this failure pull you down, instead of rising above it with full valour and showing the world what you deserve, as failure is the stepping-stone to achieving the real success in life.

Now, let us find the most frequently asked questions associated with the significance of failure and success:

1. Is failure essential in life?

Ans. Yes. Failure plays a critical role in life. One must understand the significance of both failure and success for a fulfilling life ahead.

2. What is the success rate of the GATE exam?

Ans. The success rate of the GATE 2023 exam is 18%. Therefore, you need to be normal with your failure stories similar to the failure stories of successful people, and create a success story after consistent efforts that will help you achieve your goals in the best possible manner.

3. Can I attempt GATE or ESE exam after one failure?

Ans. Yes. You can attempt GATE or ESE exam after one failure and keep in mind that you must utilize the attempt opportunities available for the GATE and ESE aspirants.

4. What to do if you fail GATE or ESE exam?

Ans. In case you fail your GATE or ESE exam, you must put effort and give another try to this competitive exam for the best possible results.

Thus, do not feel that failure will affect your career or keep you away from success. You must ensure that you do not let the series of failures impact your courage and persistence in any manner. The best solution is to keep trying with the right plan and strategy that helps you realize your dreams and realistic goals in the best possible manner.

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