By Abimbola Green Ajayi
Failure has many definitions, and almost everyone has a different definition of the word “failure.”
However, aside from the encouraging definitions that we have chosen for the word “failure,” such as saying it is a step toward success, a process, and so on, Failure is simply defined as the inability to meet a predetermined goal or achieve the desired outcome. What the term may mean in the future is entirely up to the individual to whom it may apply.
I was scrolling through my friends’ and family’s WhatsApp statuses when I came across an equation question with the caption “No one has gotten it.” I smiled at myself because I had failed to answer a similar equation no less than ten times.
I carefully examined the situation and provided an answer to the equation. My younger sister, who was surprised that I knew the answer, told me that it had been solved for me.
I understood what she meant and simply told her that even though I had failed close equation over ten times for various reasons, I could easily attempt this and get it right this time.
I had to fail no less than ten times before I got this right. That’s what failure is supposed to do, I told her as I finished my conversation with her. When you fail, you create a building block.
If one does not achieve the desired result on the first try, one should simply gain experience and expect a better result on the next trial. Thomas Alva Edison tried 1,000 times unsuccessfully to invent the light bulb.
Walt Disney was let go by the Kansas City Star because his editor thought he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas.”
In 1921, Walt founded his first animation company in Kansas City and struck a deal with a distribution company in which he agreed to ship his cartoons to New York and be paid six months later.
When we fail, we simply grow, learning what should not be done and how to do it better the next time. However, if appropriate lessons are not learned while failing, one may never grow and simply fail again until lessons are learned.
