http://www.straitstimes.com/premium/forum-letters/story/failure-option-20140723
I concur with Professor Simon Chesterman, who wrote that "we learn more from our failures than from our successes" ("In praise of failure"; last Saturday).
Indeed, failure and, more importantly, studying others' misfortunes are educational tools.
We could learn from the stories of those who succeeded after overcoming failures.
For instance, the Beatles were once told they had no chance of success. For years, they played several shows for almost no money at strip clubs in Germany, and they were rejected by almost every record company. But these setbacks did not deter them, and they would later go on to become a runaway success.
And while Bob Dylan was an academic failure (he dropped out of college), he was a musical success and was even awarded an honorary Pulitzer Prize in 2008.
Even basketball star Michael Jordan was dropped from his high school basketball team. Indeed, he once said: "I have failed over and over and over again in my life, and that is why I succeed."
Learning to use failure productively is something all successful people must do.
Most of us have experienced a major setback in our personal and professional lives. What determines our success is how we harness the power of failure.
As Google X head Astro Teller, an expert in intellectual technology, said: "You must reward people for failing. If not, they won't take risks and make breakthroughs. If you don't reward failure, people will hang on to a doomed idea for fear of the consequences. This wastes time and saps an organisation's spirit."
Perseverance and a thick skin can turn your failure into success.
Heng Cho Choon
No comments:
Post a Comment