June 2011

The Blessings and Benefits of Failure

You will receive a lot of advice on how to be successful in the future from scores of well-wishers – parents, teachers, and friends on the Facebook. But I am going to share some thoughts on one aspect we seldom discuss – to be highly successful, one has to learn how to fail, and then recover from it quickly by drawing the right lessons for the future.

The biggest lesson history teaches us is that we do not learn from history. The prophetic words of the Spanish American philosopher George Santayana say it all, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” He added a line later, “Only the dead can see the end of war.” It is not surprising that Generals are always accused of fighting the last war.

Fear is the strongest force that prevents us from developing our full potential. Of all the 700 odd fears, the fear of failure is the biggest of all fears, because it is seen as a personal setback that can lead to loss of self-esteem, even depression, or just in-action. Consequently, failure is considered to be a dirty word.

On the other hand, playing safe is equally incapacitating. As a result, we seek safe jobs, and avoid stepping out of comfort zones. Such people can never be visionaries and entrepreneurs.

What is failure?

If you fall and don’t rise; that is failure. If you fall, rise, and quit; that is failure. But if you fall, get up, and start running again; that is success. Success seldom teaches us lessons; but failure does.

There is another element of failure that I would like to introduce – to empathies the failure of others, even when they are out of sight in a foreign land. Unlike animals, human beings have ability to learn from the sufferings and failures without having experienced it themselves.

This empathy mixed with the power of imagination to project itself. This is what enables us to be compassionate towards victims of genocide, torture and due poverty. This is what motivates us to give power to the powerless and voice to the voiceless. This is how we can change the world.

The leader’s true is not a summary of his accomplishments, but a checklist of his failures and what he learnt from them. You can never be an effective leader, innovator and entrepreneur unless you feel good about your failures, and encourage your team to make mistakes. Only then will it be possible to build a culture of learning and improve continuously. So learn how to fail fast and fail quickly.

With warm regards,

Lieutenant General (Retd) Arjun Ray, PVSM, VSM
Chief Executive Officer
Indus Trust