The hidden treasure for success: FAILURE

FAILURE- This was the thing that built me, made me stronger and the person who I am today. In 8th standard I gave auditions for anchoring in our school’s annual gathering. I was selected in 1st round, I was very excited I imagined myself holding mic in front of the audience and speaking with full confidence. But, I was not selected for anchoring…….I was completely broken and cried the whole day, the same scenes of my failure to get selected flashed in front of my eyes and I swooned and decreased the water level of body that day.

To be an anchor was my dream, I wanted to speak in front of people but I saw my dream shattered. Only 1 person from 8th standard was to be selected and one of my classmate got selected. I blamed everyone, the selectors, my luck and everything but didn’t realized that my performance in the audition was not up to the mark. I didn’t speak properly, I had low confidence at that time, I also had fear of public speaking ( Yes, it’s strange that the person with Glossophobia- fear of public speaking, wanted to speak and become anchor). My family was the one who gave me support and encouraged me. They helped me to realize that it was just beginning and after practicing and learning ,I could become an anchor. It was just 1 opportunity and other 100s of opportunities were waiting for me.

In some days I became normal and realized that I was not a great speaker at that point of time and my performance was also ‘not good’ to be selected( Who would select not good when best is available?)It took me many days to understand this thing and take failures positively. Then I decided to improve myself to achieve my dream, so next time whenever I got opportunity to speak I stood up even though they were not ‘best’ performance but ‘better’ every time. I continued the following year I was selected to deliver sports report of our school, I was happy and excited. At last my efforts reached success.

On the day of annual gathering I spoke with my utmost confidence, now you must be thinking this turned out to be my life’s best performance but it would surely have happened if it was a movie but it’s life nothing goes as planned. I gave my performance without fear standing in front of hundreds of people but as I said it's not a happy ending like movie, the performance was ‘good’ but not ‘best’, I didn’t reach my highest potential. I made some mistakes but spoke confidently, I was happy but not extremely. I strived hard to reach my full potential as I was not yet an ‘ anchor’. The next year many opportunities came and I used them to unleash my potential and I was the one representing our school in story telling competition.

At last, I improved myself. But remember still I am not an anchor so will keep trying to achieve the goal. The failures taught me- If you haven’t failed you haven’t learned. Though this took few years but now whenever I face failure I never give up and fight back. I learn a lesson after every failure and fix it in mind to avoid such situations again. Yes, it takes time is difficult but not impossible. I understood the true meaning of all quotes related to failures. Everyone fails in life but thing we should focus on is to keep learning. Instead of breaking down, evaluate yourself, find true reason behind failure. You might be thinking that this is all just limited to literature, the type of failure we faced is nothing compared to this small one. I agree and respect your point of view but what would you feel like when you failed to publish your book 33 times?

Probably leave it or never try this much, but 34th publisher said yes to these people undaunted by failures-this launched the success of ‘Chicken soup for The Soul’. This book is bestseller and sold over 100 million copies, all because Jack Canfield and Mark Hansen had the determination to fail over and over…and keep going till they succeed.. I know it's difficult to overcome regret of failure and our constant blaming but it depends on us – we can choose to keep lamenting or growing. When I was rejected for anchoring I cried and was upset but then I realized how important failures are and how they help us to grow. As said by Beverly Sills, “ You may be disappointed if you fail but you are doomed if you don’t try.” It is because of failures and valuable that we derived from them. So next time whenever you fail, remember it’s a step for your growth. Remember, Failure is First Attempt In Learning !!!!!!!!!