Is Failure Really Bad, or Have We Made It The Bad Guy?

Please accept my pranam at your lotus feet Swamiji where I cherish to find myself very soon. Sorry Swamiji, I could not write a comment for your latest blog as I am a baby in the field of meditation. I do not even know the M of meditation. Hence, instead of becoming a vakya veer, I just kept quiet. There is no meaning in saying or writing something if you do not really mean the same. Vachan paval, but kartavya nirbal 😉, should not be the case.

Today I am going to write a topic that everybody has dealt with. It is called ‘Failure’. Yes, some people have responded to it while some have reacted to it. As we know the famous proverb – Success has many fathers, but failure has no takers. Failure is either orphan or they are because of someone else to be precise 😉. Bachha Party (Meera, Nalin, Taahira, Kunal, Rishi, Ashu, Yash, Pratik and all others whom I am forgetting due to my weak memory), please read this article carefully to get a new perspective of the word FAILURE! Are you ready?

Before talking about how to deal with failure, let us first analyse what is the definition of failure? The classical definition of Failure may be the mismatch between the expected outcome and the real outcome of some event. Let me elucidate. Suppose you have expected to score 85 percent in the exam, but when the result is out, you have scored only 75 percent. You term it as a failure. You expected that you will get accolades for some job done properly according to you, but at the end of the day, nobody even acknowledged it.

There can be other examples also. You expected something from a relationship, but the treatment you received was very cold. Professionally, there was some target to meet, but you failed to achieve the same. You can term all these as Failures. The immediate outcome – disappointment and feeling of unworthiness. If stretched further, you may be running to an free astrologer to convert your failure to success in the next go, right Nalin? But dear readers, let me tell you that all these are relative beliefs. Do not react to failures is the first mantra to face it.

Nearly a year ago, my ego was playing havoc on my mind. It so happened that a number of instruments designed and developed by me started failing at various installations. The first mistake I made was denial. How can an instrument designed and tested so meticulously working satisfactorily for more than one and a half year can suddenly fail like this? Rather than analysing the cause of failure, my mind took me to an altogether different loop of “how can this happen to me?” But I forgot at that time that I am also a human being and to err is human. After all I am not perfect. In fact, nobody is per say. But I dived into the bottom of sorrow because of my ego and ignorance.

It took me almost four months to crawl out of the thing and embrace reality, face it head on. Running away is not an option. When the circuit was analysed with a thermal camera to have a heat signature mapping, a small capacitor showed very high heating. It was a capacitor with polarity, I mean it has a positive and a negative terminal which could withstand a voltage of up to 25 Volts. It was mounted in reverse manner on the board! As it was getting operated at 12 Volt, it did work for one and half year, but with time, the derating started and one fine day the poor capacitor gave up. This analysis was an eye opener for me and my entire team. For such a fault, I created havoc in my personal and family life totally throwing it out of gear. Now I think how foolish I was 😉.

The point I want to make is that failure is not the absolute act of failing, but giving up trying thinking how can I make such a mistake and I am good for nothing. You never fail until you quit trying. Yes, I have scored less marks than expected, but I will weed out my mistakes for the next one. Yes, my relationship is in tatters, but I will give the best to it before bowing out. Yes, I could not meet the office deadline – I will analyse how to optimize my efforts, resources and planning for the next time.

I will convert my failure to the quote “Sometimes you succeed, other times you fail learn.” The classic example quoted is of the Legend Thomas Alva Edison who failed 1000 times before selecting Tungsten for the incandescent electric bulb filament material. Success never teaches you great things. But a failure is the one who is your best teacher. You can learn a whole new concept from failure which can radically alter your perspective towards problem solving and in general, towards life.

What is experience after all? It is a collection of memories of how we failed and how to avoid them. It is as simple as that. When a baby starts to walk, it can not maintain balance and keeps on falling. But one fine day, it starts walking and subsequently running. Did it give up after some failed attempts? No. It persistently tried until it acquired the experience of methods of failure. It carefully avoids those failures and the glaring result is for the entire world to see.

Those, who have not failed a significant number of times in life or did not get exposure to problems because of some overprotective parents, will definitely be going to have a tough time ahead. Those who hate failures, will not be able to appreciate how rich they have become in terms of experience. Life is not a cake walk. Neither was it for the cave man nor is it for the i-phone holding man 😉. Had the cave man not learnt from his failures, the i-phone holding man would never have appeared. It is as simple as that. That is why the following golden words are iterated and re-iterated

FAILURE IS THE PILLAR OF SUCCESS (Provided that you are willing to learn from it and not getting disheartened, as Fevicol cannot fix it😉).

So, next time you fail, just pause and respond instead of reacting. Be grateful to God that he has given you a chance to remember him. He has given you an opportunity to break your own stereotype and be a new you. He has given you opportunity to enhance your experience. He wants you to excel (not Microsoft Excel😉) in life, improve yourself. Just take a deep breath, remember the supreme power, offer your gratitude and start the re-building process, because God has chosen YOU my dear!

Thank you everyone for your precious time and may failure be a welcomed guest in your life ;).

Jai Shri Hari.