Is Failure BAD??
Date: 18.07.2014 | Posted by
Sriram Benur
From our School days till completion of education, one thing that we have heard
the most from our family, friends, teachers and society is that failing is bad.
They said, if we fail in education we will fail in our life. They asked, what is
that we are going to do if we do not get good grades? If you don’t get good grades
you dont get a Job. Who will marry you if you don’t have a job? The person on the
next door scores so well, why you don’t?
After hearing all this, some of us have even left passion of being a sportsman or
starting a business or being an artist etc just to make sure that we do not fail
in exams.
After we got placed in a JOB, the movie of failure continues… Why because some of
us are still running in the same “FEAR of FAILURE”, but coming form a different
angle. If you fail to deliver this by the deadline, you may loose you’re JOB, you
may not get good rating; you may not get an increment etc.
I came to know that a girl committed suicide on 11th June who had just completed
12th, because she felt she may fail to get a Medical seat. I felt terrible when
I saw the statistics of suicide rate in India, in 2012 - 1,35,445 people committed
suicide i.e. approximately 371 suicide/day, these are due to failing to understand
and lead family, failing to lead a good married life, failing to get good grades,
failing in Job and more….
Coming to student suicide rate in India. 5,857 student suicides were reported in
2006, the figure jumped to 7,379 in 2010, according to data released by the National
Crime Records Bureau. I am not sure on the recent numbers. That is approximately
20 students committed suicide every single day in 2010. We feel bad when
we see in the news that 2 people dead by accident etc, what do you feel about 20
youngsters loosing hope to live? The reason is “FEAR of FAILURE”, who is responsible
for this? Do we blame the education system or blame friends/family and society?
I feel "FEAR of FAILURE" has taken more lives than any other disease.
On the other side I realised that there are more than 50 billionaires who are college
drop outs and are successful people, who ignored this word "FEAR of FAILURE"and
have achieved great success. Some of the well known faces are Steve Jobs, Bill Gates,
Mark Zuckerberg, Mukesh Ambani, Andrew Carnegie (one of the richest men that ever
lived), Henry Ford, Richard Branson, Thomas Edison, Walt Disney, Michael Dell the
list goes on. So this means that getting good grade is not everything in life. Now
lets not forget, todays these are the people who are giving jobs to the people who
have got GOOD GRADES.
Youths in India account to 63% of our population. As kids for the 1st time we have
failed to walk, failed to ride the cycle, failed to swim and more.. but today we
have learnt that, why because we dint give up!! Education is important, at the same
time we need to help them understand that getting good grades is not everything
in life, education is not DO or DIE, help them to come out of “FEAR of FAILURE”
rather plant a seed of “JOY of SUCESS”make them understand there potential, identify
and guide them in achieving that. You never know some of them may be in the future
Millionaires and Billionaires list of college dropouts. If a person learns from
the temporary defeat (so called failure) then he/she has not failed.
Everyone faces one or the other failure in life, we need to have the courage to
face the challenges and prove to the society that there is success even after that.
Don’t forget the sacrifice and the love of parents. They don’t deserve the loss
of LIFE!!
Let's bring the Change in Mind Set.
Last Updated:08 Sep 2015