Failure and success
In every individual’s life, the successes and failures would always account for major changes which take place. Indeed, both failure and success can teach an individual a lesson. One can able to ponder on his mistakes after a failure and in the future he will apply the lessons he learned. On the other hand, success can also be a source of valuable lesson in the sense that the individual has the idea of how to deal with situations more effectively. Recall the cliche stating that failure is the best teacher.
Because failure resonates a negative feeling to a person, this may act as reinforcement for the person to find another way to elude another scenario which might lead to the same failure. Both the ideas of success and failure are relative to every individual. For instance, a governor candidate may find his campaign very successful because survey results showed that he is known by more people. However, the actual results of the votes state that he didn’t win. Apparently, the whole campaign was a failure. In this particular situation, it is evident that even the failure of being successful in an endeavor has more impact over success itself.
Thus, this only suggests that failure offers more lessons to a person. Also recall the saying that failure breeds success. This is another supporting statement for the fact that failure is the better teacher. Because people learn from their mistakes which have caused them to fail, they eventually come up with sound decisions that continue to lead them to a successful goal. Of course, it is very important that individuals admit their mistakes before the learning actually starts. In order to contextualize the intensity between the lessons learned in success and failure, it is good to discuss an organizational example that involves Coca-Cola.
After several products which didn’t get the sympathy of the public, the company tried to learn from these mistakes in order to come up with a new innovation that will be loved by the consumers. CEO Neville Isdell once told the company “You will see some failures. As we take more risks, this is something we must accept as part of the regeneration process” (McGregor). This scenario clearly shows that failure can be painful but it surely produces a lot of guidelines of things that should not be done in the future. Although one may not have a clearer picture of what to be done to succeed, there is surely a vivid idea of a better way to do it.
While success can also guide someone or an organization to doing the right thing, there are lesser ideas on the things to avoid; thus, there are more chances of failing the next time. There are lots of individual experiences pertaining to failures and success. As mentioned earlier, failure has more impact to a person and this impact can really push a person to strive hard for betterment and even perfection. It acts like a catalyst which activates upon failure the capabilities and competencies of a person or an organization to perform better and to struggle for excellence.
In the end, individuals can ponder on the events which took place in their lives and their environment and eventually realize that indeed, failure can be tough on them but it surely drives them to see more, consider possibilities, and take utmost care whenever they execute decisions. Embracing one’s mistakes and learning from his failures would definitely lead him to the successful path.
Work Cited McGregor, Jena. “How Failure Breeds Success. ” 10 June 2006. Business Week. 28 September 2008. <http://www. businessweek. com/magazine/content/06_28/b3992001. htm>
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