Failure (A Short Story)

Sunday. 27th February, 2022. 

Goodday guys. How is your Sunday going? I hope it's going good. Today was supposed to be a relaxing day for me. I did all I needed to do for the day in the morning in hopes that I would have time to rest during the rest of the day. Things were going well until my mum fell ill. She was weak and even throwing up, but she's feeling better and is resting now. She has also taken her prescribed drugs.

Yesterday, I lost my draft. I was going to talk about failure and I think I'll do just that today. Let me start by telling a story.

Tobe grew up in an underdeveloped village with his parents who were farmers. He never really enjoyed the joys of having a good meal more than once in a day. From the food they cultivated during harvest season, they fed themselves and exchanged some others for food items they don't have. They had no money and even the food they had was barely enough to feed them, so they had to eat sparingly and leave some for barter.

Tobe attended the local school started by some missionaries. He enjoyed the tales of the principal's escapades to the city. The principal usually told the about tall buildings with machines that carries one to the top rather than climbing the stairs. He dreamt of what the building could look like as he had only ever seen a bungalow.

He wanted to go to the city too but with the finances and general economy of the village, his plans seemed too ambitious. However, he did not give up. Tobe persisted and after secondary school, he applied for admission into a higher institution. His friends told him it was a waste of time because even if he got through, he would not be able to afford to buy books talk less of the school and accommodation fees.

The day came for him to write his exam, he was the only student in the whole village writing, it was a spectacle. The missionaries transported him to the location of the exam and when he arrived the next day, the whole village was waiting to welcome him. Even though they knew he couldn't afford to go there, they were excited because he was trying. He knew he couldn't let them down.

When the postman brought the result, people ran after him as they saw him approaching Tobe's House. They gathered round and waited for him to tell them the result. As he opened it, he discovered he didn't do well enough to get an admission. Everyone was disappointed and they left berating themselves for having their hopes up in the first place.

Tobe considered himself a failure but despite that, he didn't give up. He prepared and wrote the exams again. There was still some excitement as people believed that he wouldn't fail the second time but when the result arrived, it was even worse than the first. Strangely enough, he applied to write again the third year. At the third attempt, no one was excited anymore. It was even a shameful experience as they mocked him. When the result arrived, he discovered he had finally passed.

Tobe's parents sold a large portion of their farmland to pay the first year's school and accommodation fees and his transport fare. At school, he did all sorts of menial jobs to afford the other payments. At the end of the school years, he graduated with the best result and got a good job offer.

He ended up working in one of the tall buildings he fantasised about, and he was able to move his parents to the city.

As cliche as this story may seem, there is a strong lesson in it. You are not truly a failure until you give up. A lot of successful people have had their moments of failure but they kept pushing. They re-strategized and came back to try again.

Trying again does not mean using the exact same approach that did not work or else you might fail even harder but it requires taking the lessons learnt from the first attempt and making a better move.

You are not a failure!

Have a nice day!