Failure as a Catalyst

Dealing with failure.

It is impossible to live without failing at something unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.

― J.K. Rowling

How do you define failure? Our definition of failure, and attitude towards it determines the distance we cover in life.

Many treat failure as a pariah to stay away from as much as possible. They'd do anything to stay away from failure because of what it means to people in the society. The moment you redefine what failure means to you is the moment you change your fate.

We worry too much about how we look to other people when we fail that we don't bother to take stock of what the failure means to us, and what it has done in us. This is why people fear failure. We fear how it makes us feel and look, regardless of what it has helped us learn.

When you begin to look at failure from the standpoint of what it'd help you learn, and the distance it will help you cover, you will have unraveled the power behind failure and break away from the fear of it.

You know people who don't fail? They are people who have never tried anything, who have never done anything, who have never created anything and who have no bearing upon their lives. The people who have plans for their lives and a mission to accomplish fail time and again.

Successful people are successful because they failed. They dared failure, failed again and again, rid themselves of the fear of it because they know it is a necessary evil, failed some more, then they succeeded.

What we all term as an overnight success has numerous untold and recorded failures. They succeeded because they failed, time and again. You know the paradox? Success is ninety-nine percent failure. That's right. You only need to succeed once.

Just like the story of the axe and the tree. We all know now that it wasn't the one-hundredth strike that fell the tree. It was the ninety-nine strikes that came before and failed to do it. Those strikes had impact.

Failure has an impact. You only need to choose whether it's an impact away from, or an impact towards achieving your goals. All you need is the right attitude, then you would see that failure is a catalyst for change, and for success.

I'm not denying that it hurts, oh hell yeah! It sure does. We would rather do without failing, but c'est la vie! That's life! It doesn't care about your feelings. It's not personal. It will happen. It is impossible to succeed without failing.

Sounds erroneous huh? Because now you’re asking, what about the people who come out and drop stellar performances on big stages time and time again? Those ones how have never failed.

Wait, they've never failed, or you have never seen them fail?

The secret to their seemingly perfect performances is their numerous failures in the closet through practice. They have hit the tree ninety-nine times in their closet and failed, then what you see is the one-hundredth strike that makes you think they are the 'exceptions'.

Here's the hard truth. If you want to become anything, anybody of substance, You will fail. Whether it’s in your closet or in public. In your closet, good; in public, even better. You should fail. You should do it deliberately time and again so the fear of failure will lose its grip over you.

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Redefine failure. See it as a necessary ingredient. See it as gaining experience. See it as learning things that don't work. See it as building capacity. Never personalise failure. Don't take yourself too seriously. It is not about your person, but about the skills and capacity you need to build.

What have you been too scared to start because you fear you might fail? Do you realize now that you should not be scared of a potential for growth simply because of how you'd feel or how it'd look? Growth is not pleasant. If you want to grow, be prepared for the unpleasantness of it all.

With this new perspective to failure, what will you do? What will you start?

To your growth,

Abiola Okunsanya,

Handzinspired. ✨