Failure

Sometimes, even when most things in life turn a blind eye to you, failure acknowledges you. And like death, failure is an inevitable truth about everything in life. In every success story, there is a lurking failure somewhere. In every happy moment, there is always the fear of failure. Failure, therefore, is one of the few constants in life. Success may cheat you, but failure wont. Just like life may pass you by, but death wont.

The mood of this article is, but obviously, black. However, the content is totally pragmatic. A result of years of introspection, a constant quest of happiness, and the reason why its neverlasting. As every successful person would vouch, failures spur them to greater success. Why then, are people afraid of failure? Why do people crave for unmitigated success but shy away from failure? Why do people fail to acknowledge the role that failure plays in shaping their lives? Why are people measured on their success alone, and their failures are never given their due?

A few weeks ago, I was sharing an absolutely blissful day with someone very close. Everything seemed so perfect that, for a while, I was inclined to believe in the concept of a perfect world. And then, I noticed a streak of sadness in the eyes of this person. When quizzed, she revealed that she has this fear that when she is very happy, there is always something that will go wrong. The same feeling has engulfed me several times over the past few weeks, that there is failure lurking somewhere around when everything is too perfect.

Failure, and more than failure itself, the fear of failure, has deprived the world of so many moments of happiness. We all need to shake the shrink inside our head to fight against this fear. We need to learn to accept failure as an absolute inevitability, and therefore, plan our lives despite it, and not without it. And when we successfully (irony intended) learn to negotiate failure, we'll all be able to enjoy the small joys of life a whole lot more.

I hope I was successful in conveying my thoughts about failure, and if I wasn't, well, failure is the stepping stone of success. So either which way, I cant fail . Not when I am successful, not when I am not successful. That's the beauty of failure. If you try to run away from it, it will chase you all your life. If you learn to accept it with open arms, it wont trouble you anymore.

So next time someone calls you a failure, just smile and enjoy your success.