The Importance of Failure
The outcomes are so apparent that they overshadow all the processes. For instance, a simple flick of the switch lights up the bulb, and even though a sequence of processes are involved, we rarely stop to think about them. The same analogy applies to human reactions towards success and failures. In general, succeeding is considered the ultimate goal that everyone is out to achieve. On the other hand, failure is the most dreaded experience with the ability to make influential and most determined people consider quitting and starting a new life. Ironically, most of the people who have made history failed on several occasions before attaining the success that has become popular in motivational speeches and quotes. The society has created a culture that adorns successes while degrading failures rendering the latter undesirable, a misconception that has remained unopposed despite the numerous disapprovals. In this regard, the paper argues that failure is a better teacher than success and cites various real-life examples.
Learning Opportunities from Failure
Unlike success that often marks the end of a person’s endeavors, failure provides valuable learning opportunities as one is encouraged to re-examine the reasons behind the adverse outcomes and make future improvements (Chowdhary, 2013). Life could be likened to a contact sport that individuals can attain proficiency based on the number of trials that they make. In this case, one’s ability to learn from the past mistakes is what differentiates winners from losers. For example, Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb was considered unteachable by his tutor. However, at the age of 12, Edison dared to put the little knowledge that he had acquired from being home-schooled into practice. The outcome was a single working electric bulb after a thousand trials. From the example, it is clear that Edison used his failures as an opportunity to realize his mistakes and refine the next trial and finally, he got it right. The most important lesson that can be drawn from Edison’s case is that failure strengthens a person to face challenges, an aspect that might be unachievable if one has never failed.
Creative Reasoning through Failure
Additionally, failure serves as an excellent teacher because it encourages the application of creative reasoning to resolve the problem at hand. In general, people tend to rely on the ‘normal ways’ to resolve challenges, and it is not until these techniques fail that we try out alternatives. Based on this statement, it can be inferred that failure encourages individuals to seek other solutions that they would not even think of under normal circumstances. This point is well-demonstrated by examining a brief history of PayPal organization. Originally, PayPal was a cryptography company before becoming a PDAs money transfer system. However, the firm experienced several years of failure that forced the owner to think about a different business model, and the outcome is a successful online payment system with global coverage. In other words, PayPal’s failure forced the owners to explore and refine alternative ideas that were better than the original ones. Application of this example in real life, it is apparent that failure presents a challenge that pushes people towards examining the issue critically to develop creative ideas that serve as a basis for inventions and innovations.
Failing as a Path to Success
Henry Ford once said that “Failure is just another opportunity to start again but more intelligently this time”. Ford’s statement sums up several factors that make failure a better teacher than success. In essence, failure encourages one to re-do the same activity over and over again with each step being better than the previous one. Alternatively, failure forces one to return to the basics, identify mistakes and, devise proper ways of tackling them. The outcome is increased experience which exposes a person’s strengths and weaknesses that become critical in building the character. As previously mentioned, failure strengthens a person’s ability to face adversity and emerge victoriously. Such an effect could be attributed to the fact that failing allows a person not only to identify the past errors but also employ creative reasoning as an attempt to get to the best solution. Eventually, the individual would be able to realize the opportunities presented by non-performance episodes and translate them into some form of inspiration (Fang " Luna-Lucero, 2016). Walt Disney was fired from his position as a newspaper editor because he lacked good ideas and imagination. He tried out various business ventures, but none were successful. After several years, Disney premiered the famous movie, Snow White which has become a worldwide childhood sensation. Disney was not creative enough to work in a newspaper firm or put up his own business. Over time he refined his creativity, and the outcome was “Snow White”, a movie that would be enjoyed generations. From the example, it can be agreed that failure is a better teacher than success as it expounds one’s experiences and allows them to refine their capabilities.
Conclusion
In general, failure is a better teacher than success as it presents multiple opportunities to sharpen a person’s insights which translates into high creativity and efficiency. Even though success is desirable, it often creates situations that might impede further performance. Failures have different effects as they strengthen one’s approach to tackling challenges and utilizing successful episodes as a stepping stone to the other step rather than the ultimate goal. From the presented arguments, it can be concluded that failure is indeed a better teacher than success.
References
Chowdhary, A. (2013, February 20). Failure Is A Better Teacher Than Success. The Rodinhoods Thinkers. Retrieved from http://therodinhoods.com/post/failure-is-a-better-teacher-than-success/
Fang, F.-F. A., " Luna-Lucero, M. (2016). Even Einstein Struggled: Effects of Learning About Great Scientists’ Struggles on High School Students’ Motivation to Learn Science. Journal of Education Psychology, 314-328. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/edu-edu0000092.pdf
