Monday, October 21, 2013

The Paradoxes Of Life - To Succeed, One Must Fail

In a talk the other day I found a sympathetic voice expressing pity at my revelation of my failures along with my success. I pointed out gently that failure is not a bad word - it is a great teacher. Without failing one never knows how to succeed really.

Success comes in two forms - short term and long term. In the short term and short lived variety one does not know how success came about really. The process is not known and it all happens by chance. One does not know how to sustain success or how to get back. One failure could seal these short term varieties of success.

In the long term variety the person sees success and then failure. He or she does not get daunted by failure and tries to understand and overcome the reasons for failure. In the process of trying to understand he or she figures out the process of succeeding by improving skill, physical and mental ability. This time the person succeeds on a long term basis. When the person slips, or fails, he or she knows that the level has to be improved and an upward correction takes place.

To succeed long term really then, one must fail. And rise from that failure.

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