As we start another week, and go to a job that majority of us hate (lol….am i lying though??) I wanted to give you a few nuggets on the term failure so here it goes………Lots of us assume we’re failures, or assume other people are failures, but in reality we’re worse than failures.
We say we “tried” something — the football team in secondary school, starting a business after university, pursing an unconventional career path, a relationship or marriage with a person — and that it’s time to give up now, because we “tried.”
“At least I gave it a good run,” we lie to ourselves. Well, you’re in for some bad news. So much of the time when we tell ourselves “I tried my best,” we’re full of shit. The title “failure” needs to be earned
A failure is in a whole different category than someone who hasn’t tried. For some reason we tend to just put people in two categories: success, and everything else. But the reality is, that there are degrees of non-success. And they aren’t all created equal.
The truth about failure is that it’s a thousand times more respectable than what most people end up calling a “failure.” Most of us are “worse-than-failures” and it’s time to accept it.
Real failure entails risk, it entails constant difficulty and constant striving, it entails heartbreak, gain and loss, and blindingly hard work. It entails many days of talking yourself off that ledge.
Calling someone a failure, therefore, says a lot about a person’s character. It’s a title of respect. And many of us don’t deserve the title of failure.
I came across a quote by Theodore Roosevelt which I thought resembled my point so well so here it is…“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
P.s Hope you enjoy the post. Please do comment, by clicking ‘leave a comment’ at the top of the post, and let me know your thoughts 🙂
Great post.
Thank you!
Wow. I def agree; I’m worse-than-failure. With the right attitude to ‘trying my best’, I would be worthy of the title failure.
Hard truth; Great post.
Thank you 🙂 Yep life is too short not to try and give it your all!
Great Post! One of the saddest things in life is wasted talent, and a majority fall into that because they don’t want to put the effort in and use those excuses “we tried or at least I gave it a good run.”
Yep I agree with that – that makes me sad
You know what this does, it makes me feel so bad about myself lol. I’m always say, i’m that guy that always at least tries, like even if nobody shows up, i’ll show up and i know that’s good but i use that as an excuse when i don’t want to show up. This is a very thought piece and dare i say it: I love it. This really challenges me in a way i haven’t thought about until now and the way you’ve written it, is so raw, like a causal conversation in the costa coffee down the road, but it’s powerful and for that, Thankyou. God bless you.
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