How can we differentiate a lesson from a failure?
Failure may be part of success but it really exists. Failure exists. I realized that there are actually two things in life, either you fail or you learn.
Last night, while everyone in the house was sound asleep, thousands of thoughts visited me again. I was just staring at the ceiling thinking over things like this and things like that until dawn. And one of those thoughts is about the future, if I would ever become a teacher.
Can I really become a teacher?
Can I handle it?
What if I realized that it wasn’t the dream job I truly wanted?
Things like that and such. And then a memory of a teaching demonstration crossed my mind during my second year in college. It’s not a successful demo since I’ve messed everything. It was actually a failure to me. But then, by looking back at those times I realized something and just laughed it out.
Have you ever also asked yourself what went wrong? Or why it wasn’t right at all?
I’ve realized my mistakes in that demonstration. It was a teaching demonstration of an elementary teacher, I should’ve acted and thought like a real elementary teacher. The problem is I haven’t. I made a lesson and discussed it in front of my classmates and teacher, not in my elementary pupils. I actually realized it all just last night since I never thought of my failures that much because I always think that it is part of the success and it is part of me being a human.
All of us fail. There’s no one on this planet who never fails even once in his/her life. Failure exists in order for us to learn, or to know how far we change or achieve. However, there are also two types of failure. A failure that gives us so much lesson and a failure that only gives us scars.
As a kid, we stumbled many times before we were able to achieve our first walk. We fall many times and hurt our knees before we can run completely. It is a lesson we learned while growing up. However, if we stop trying to walk just because we stumble and fall many times then that would be a real failure.
How can we achieve something if we stop trying?
Running a business is not easy. Not everyone gets successful on their first try, some had beginner’s luck perhaps, but absolutely not everyone. And did you really think those people with such luck didn’t learn something along the way?
The case is, if you’re planning to start a business there are many things you need to reconsider first. Such as competitors and customers. How different is your business from other businesses? How can you make people believe your product or buy your product? How can you overcome a great loss if ever? What are your strategic plans to run your business for a long time? Things like that and such. I am not a business-minded person, however, my family runs a small business so I was exposed to these things and all.
Starting a business isn’t easy, and making it run for a long time is hard. You’ll experience many disappointments first. Lost your income, and probably fought with someone. You will also feel like nothings working on your end even if you have done enough. And the next choice you make will determine if you continue to learn and achieve it, or you will stop and totally fail.
Either of the two, it is you who chooses it, thus, only you can probably change your dream future or destroy it. The other one can make you realize that you learned something and improve to something better, while the other one makes you regret from even trying and keeps your mind full of ‘what ifs’.
Both of them make us realize that life is easy but living is not. We cannot keep running in circles forever. In order to live, we need to move. And in order to succeed, we need to learn. We must learn, not fail.
