The year 1985 witnessed the failure of brilliant techie, Steve Jobs. Being fired from his own company gave him the thoughts of running away from Silicon Valley, albeit he once again started from scratch and created two new Software Development Companies namely Pixar and NeXT. NeXT was purchased for 429 million dollars by Apple in 1997. The sale of NeXT got Steve Jobs back to his company Apple as a cofounder. Pixar grew into one of the greatest animation companies and was later on purchased at 7.4 billion dollars by Disney in 2006.
In his Stanford Commencement address in the year 2005, while connecting the dots of his hard work as a dropout at Reed college and of being fired at Apple he stated that “Being fired by Apple was the best thing in his life as the heaviness of success was replaced by the lightness of a new start.”
Failure is perceived as a situation of grief, loss, pain, inferiority and different negative emotions. We often consider it as the end of everything, instead of accepting it as a part of the success journey. Be it young age, adulthood or old age while connecting the dots to our past we often repent over situations that seemed huge and difficult then, in the present feel like a minor issue that could be solved with little more patience, little more effort or one more trial. Having an aerial view about others' issues and being able to encourage them to be patient and persistent is always easier than working on self goals.
While working on our own goals we measure our journey with the achievements, instead of efforts. We are always more worried about others' opinions on our failures than our persistence. Success is the compilation of numerable failures and efforts. The Marketing book “Nike Culture'', quotes Michael Jordan, the famous professional NBA basketball player, who says “I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.
What we Gain from Failure:
1. Discover:
Failures help us understand loopholes through observation and self analysis. Understand what will work and what won't, make changes for better results in the next trial.
2. Rework:
Being aware of our mistakes or shortcomings, we rework on our goals and execute them with regular planned small efforts to achieve the huge goals.
3. Resilience:
After failing, we rise and are back stronger and more knowledgeable. Aspiring to achieve success through persistence and hard work.
4. Exploration:
Defeat makes us determined and creates room for growth through exploration of different paths and methods.
5. Responsibility:
Once collapsed, we are determined to make things better by taking charge of our lives. Holding ourself responsible for our reaction towards different outcomes we take one step at a time towards making things better.
(Author: Alisha Fernandes is an inquisitive learner & content writer at TechDoQuest)