Life's Infallible

Failure to achieve something makes us ashen with grief and we feel as if life is finished and “I am an utter useless”. But is it really so? Does failure to achieve something indicates our incapability or insufficiency? Each of us has failed at some point in life, at times we have failed in reaching our personal goals and at times our professional goals have remained far from reach. Sometimes, simply not achieving what we have aspired makes us feel defeated. Why can’t we consider failure as just an event and not a person? I feel enthralled to remember Thomas Edison’s quote on Failure “I have not failed; I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work”. Failure never means that I am a failure, it just means that I have not succeeded yet and there are a lot of scopes coming; so next time I know my moves better because I have learnt from my past failed attempt.

Oftentimes, we come across young people committing suicide because of love failures. Now this is a very common type of setback encountered by many. Well my question is- Is it really a failure? I would rather call it an experience. Some make a big deal about it while others chose to just forget and move on. But I am sure most of the folks have experienced incidences of this kind during late teens or early adulthood. But those who have ‘moved on’ have realized that things eventually fall in place and most of those people have found love again and are living a happy and satisfying life. However, those who went to an extent of killing themselves are the biggest losers. Perhaps, they are an ultimate failure. I have very close friends who made their aching heart a beautiful feeling and that inspired them to write beautiful poetry or create great music, in a way immortalizing that short love story which never reached its conclusion. Failure sometimes enlarges the spirit. You have to fall back upon humanity and god. I was watching this newly released Imtiaz Ali’s movie “Rockstar” by Ranbir Kapoor. Indeed, Ranbir is one of the most potent descendent of Prithvi Raj Kapoor according to me. He has much more substance than any other new generation Kapoor, which is evident from his subtle acting skills. Well, I was bringing in the reference of this film which is about this simple middle class Delhi guy who has a larger than life dream - of being a rockstar like Jim Morrison! But all he gets from his reluctant audience is ridicule and humiliation. He's at his wit's end, when he realizes that all musical stars, all artists in fact, have one thing in common. And that is tragedy. They all have tragic lives. They have all suffered painful heartbreaks to become what they are. Whereas, his own life is an oasis of peace. Unless he does something drastic, he will never become a rock star. That’s when he tries to woo a girl who is totally unreachable for a guy of his standards. All he wanted was to experience a heart break.

Well, this movie had a funny beginning. But life definitely gets a much deeper meaning when you have an unfulfilled desire of some sort. So, it won’t be completely wrong to say that failure makes you a stronger individual with deeper sense of life.

Actually speaking, there are no secrets to success , it’s the result of preparation, hard-work and learning from failure.

 I would like to mention a small instance from my own life. While in the school I was very poor in my second language subject Hindi. In my 9^th standard final exams; all I scored in Hindi was 35 out of 100, which was not even a pass mark. I was not a bad student though, but Hindi was my proven weakness. Scoring good mark in Hindi was tough even for the brightest guy in the class, and on top of that I was not just miserable in that subject, I was incapable of scoring even the pass marks. Class 10^th final exams were fast approaching and my parents were worried that my score in Hindi will eventually pull my entire percentage down in the matriculation exams. And after that 35 in the last exam it was quite obvious. But as I said failure in one attempt makes you more focus and if you truly analyze it, you can figure out what did not work for you and as a result it prepares you to plan your moves so that you don’t repeat the same mistakes again. Like they say- “By failing to prepare, you are actually preparing to fail”. I was quite adamant this time, I wanted to succeed whatever it takes, I put my heart and soul in that subject. And with those special attempts I managed to secure the highest mark in Hindi that year which was 91. Now when I think retrospectively I feel if I had not scored that 35, I would have also not scored 91. This is because if like everyone else I would have had got 60 percent mark in my 9^th class exam; which was considered a good score especially when it comes to Hindi. I would not have put that extraordinary effort and that would have fetched me nothing more than another 60 % marks in that subject. But just because I failed once; I was extra careful and I had a proper planning in place to not repeat my mistakes. So, technically, failure is an opportunity to begin again more intelligently.

However, men who put effort to do something and then fail are infinitely better than those who don’t do anything and succeed just by luck. Because they don’t get the chance to refine themselves. Success and Failure both add dimensions to our lives. And Lastly, I can’t resist quoting J.K.Rowling, The creator of Harry Potter, from her speech at Harvard Commencement Address in 2008, She goes “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well have not lived at all. In which case, you've failed by default”.

Ultimately, the decision lies with us- we have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give a set of criteria if you allow it to do so.