Failure

I think I have said this before. The problem with digitization of the world is the people seem to have also decided to go digital. I mean, like, we used to sort of think of things in an 'analog' fashion before. It was not like 'Success' or 'Failure'; it was more like you got placed somewhere on the continuum between failure and success.

Like, you could be more successful than a few, less successful than most; more successful than half, less successful than the other half and so on. NOW, if you are not a 'Winner', you are a 'Loser', there ends the tale.

But this 'either this or that' seems to span almost every topic discussed. Take Failure for example. There is a difference between 'I failed at something' and 'I am a failure'. Failing at something can happen because of a variety of reasons; to be a failure would mean that YOU are doomed to fail at EVERYTHING. And, to the extent that you ASSUME that you are a failure when you merely have failed at something, you WILL be a failure. There is such a thing called a self-fulfilling prophecy.

This, though, sort of seems to reduce itself to 'It's not my fault that I failed' and 'It's only my fault that I failed' when people consider it. Cos, they assume, that to think it is their fault is to dub themselves a failure. And, so, IF you only failed at something and do not consider yourself a failure, it seems to automatically mean that the failure happened NOT because of you...it rained at the wrong time, the VC was in a bad mood that day, yada yada.

THAT is the problem with a digital view of the world. See, 'I am a failure' may not be correct because THAT says you are no good at ANYTHING. But that does not automatically mean that any failure happened despite you doing everything right.

To not let repeated failures to cause you to define yourself as a failure, we always hark back to Edison and his repeated attempts at creating the electric lamp...till he succeeded. But was his second attempt the exact same as his first, hoping that the universe would grace him with success this time? Or did he try to see WHAT could have gone wrong in what he had done the first time, try to change things around...over and over till he got it right?

THAT is the point more easily seen when it is an technology thing, but not as easily visible when it comes to your own attitudes, aptitudes and character. You may fail because you lack sufficient talent to rise above the crowd in THAT area; you may fail because your approach was wrong; you may fail because you failed to carry your people along...the point is that every failure needs to be evaluated for what you need to change in the way you work - is it the wrong area, do you need expertise which you currently lack, do you need to do things differently, what?

Failures are stepping stones to success, yes, provided you use them as learning experiences. Otherwise failures would only be the treadmill on which you keep running till you drop...out!

The gap between 'I have failed' and 'I am a failure' exists ONLY when you (a) refuse to see YOURSELF as a failure because you failed at something and (b) Understand what your own specific failings were that contributed to that failure and correct them.

Fail to do that and that gap vanishes. And you could be the person, who cannot carry a tune in a bucket, trying to become the next S.P. Balasubramaniam or Mohd. Rafi!