The Might Of Failure

By Joel A. Omonigho

Failure can displace one into a terrible state. Although it can be very difficult to bear the associated pain, it is unwise to accept or remain in a failed state. The pain enables a lesson to be learned which invariably provokes the mind to enhance the goodness in one's career, health, business, relationship with God, and social and family life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joel A Omonigho
• Release date: Aug 4, 2021
• ISBN: 9781802271591

Book preview

THE INTRODUCTION

It is a natural human predisposition to avoid, prevent or reject any circumstance that might ultimately result in loss, setback, or catastrophe. It is understandable why no one wants to be associated or identified with failure. Any form of misfortune hurts, diminishes one’s ego, drains energy, and humiliates effort and ability. Life is supposedly simple but has been made complicated and complex by human activities and psychological dynamics, creating uncertainties in everyone’s undertakings through the threat of failure. The dismissal from a job, dropping out of college, capsized dreams, a broken relationship, and unaccomplished pursuits can be intensely hurtful and shameful. Ironically, nobody wants to fail, yet it seems everyone wants to poke their nose and sniff about in other peoples’ affairs and failure. Someone else’s failure seems to automatically grant others superior knowledge and the audacity to render unsolicited counselling and to suggest and remark on how to get on well with the unexpectedness of life. Failure is multifaceted with inherent diverse teachable opportunities, which most willing learners tend to gain profoundly.

Unlike success, the wave of failure spreads swiftly like a wildfire through arid vegetation. With time, the cause of the disaster becomes diluted and adulterated, with the possibility of other people weaponising the unfortunate situation to destroy status and accomplishment. It is not unwise to avoid failure, but it is imprudent to be constricted with the fear of failure. Although miscarriage of aspiration might be painful, embarrassing, and create unwarranted accounts from other persons, it can be a necessary life-changing experience for better achievement. The unattractive caterpillar has to undergo a drastic life change, the metamorphosis to become an adorable butterfly. No longer restricted to crawling on the ground, it can glide and fly to lofty heights —this being one of the numerous pieces of coded information in nature for the rendition and knowledge acquisition for humanity’s benefit. Scientists got the inspiration to produce medicinal products for societal well-being from phytochemistry – the synthesis of chemicals by plants to protect them against insects and other plant diseases. Engineers constructed the shape of an aeroplane like that of a bird. Both have a light skeleton to decrease weight, wings, and a streamlined shape to decrease drag. A beautiful butterfly’s pathway explains why successful people have a butterfly in their belly and a reaffirmation of the worthiness of a rugged path to success.

The flip side of failure provides insight which is essential for the progression and refinement of a purpose. Failure has a subtle force that drives the impetus to gain a valuable lesson and construct an alternative approach or better achievement, and this requires absolute positive consideration. Most religious-minded individuals interpret inevitable setbacks and disappointment as divine interference enabling the privileged opportunity to re-evaluate their relationship with their creator. Some people are lucky to capture success without burden, pitfalls, or a fight. A smooth operational path to success runs the risk of failing if it is inadequate in recreating or sustaining success. God’s blessing requires no input from humanity, and this is God’s special favour to bless whomsoever He desires. God created humanity and He is sovereign.

People are more likely to succeed in a society with an appropriate function and structure. However, the individual positive mindset and the comprehension of any circumstance or community fuels the drive to succeed. People who envy others operate on the paradigm of a pitiable attitude. Most successful people have been besmirched with the mud of failure and shame, and the lesson learned has been the panacea to their success. Envious people ought to focus their restive emotion on the inspiration of successful people instead of their accomplishments.

Generally, people who eventually overcome the painful experience of failure, with time, tend to have a diverse perspective of failure, more often as a practical experience to enhance their socioeconomic well-being. Disappointment provides the forum to gain adequate knowledge to develop a sound mind, spirit, and soul. Psychologists employ this concept in their therapeutic approach to the client who has been emotionally challenged due to hurt, obstacles, and disappointment. Achievers who have trodden the path of failure and applied the learned lesson to succeed are forever appreciative of the experience. Bill Gates recommends and encourages the celebration of success, but more importantly, to heed the lesson of failure.

THE PAIN

The elimination of failure is indispensably essential in any form of undertaking. Anticipated success buoys the mind with an immeasurable sense of satisfaction or accomplishment. The experience of loss is typically so unkind. Indeed, any form or nature of a setback can inflict an enormous amount of pain. No matter how or where, failure’s relativity does not alter the sharp pain it can generate. The anguish transmitted by failure can thrust an individual out of their comfort zone, knocking the person for six, into a state of total confusion and restlessness, with emotions all over the place and going topsy-turvy. Failure is emotionally unpleasant, and its pain is invisible, yet it has an incredibly profound shattering effect on the human body’s functionalities.

Consequently, the heartbeat suddenly becomes irregular and pounds irrhythmically more or less in a constricted torso. With open eyes, there is blurred vision. Hunger cannot activate the digestive system. The presentation of delectable food is unattractive, the palate is ineffective, and the sense of smell will be lost. Mental health suddenly becomes intensely challenged, and there is a steady on-rush of unreasonableness gushing to the brain. The body is robbed of adequate rest and good sleep, and it feels mangled, with the inner being groaning with a deep sense of ineptness. The religious mind evaluates the relationship with God and yearns for divine purging of the failure and escape from the pain.

Inevitably, failure is bad news. Unlike good news or a good thing, bad news or horrible stuff spontaneously gather momentum and ripple rapidly. A lousy piece of news can quickly spark, rekindle, and spread speedily, even in controlled circumstances. Commonly, people do not want to fail. Nobody wants to be the object of bad news. People who have encountered any form of failure would, in most cases, attempt to internalise the excruciating pain rather than share it with others or flaunt it. Failure drains one’s self-esteem. There is absolutely nothing exciting about being fired from a job or jilted by a lover. A broken relationship, business failure, crashed pursuit of a career, dropping out of college, failing an exam, or not winning a game will certainly not stimulate an exciting discourse. Unlike success, failure indicates recklessness and incompetence. It is disgraceful, and at the same time, it can be so embarrassing and humiliating. Unfortunately, most people are attracted to bad news and other people’s failure. Hence newsgatherers are quick to expose or sensationalise a piece of bad news because it makes a popular discussion subject in society. Gossip, it seems, feeds on people’s failure and bad news. The grapevine is ever so fresh, with a juicy story for the ever-ready public to latch onto to propagate ‘valuable’ information to a broader social network.

Nobody wants to fail. Nobody wants to be a piece of unpleasant talk, which is abnormal, yet it is human. Many people want to read, listen, and talk about the failure and reprehensible circumstances of others. To comprehend this conflicting human nature, Marc Trussler and Stuart Soroka of McGill University in Canada set up an experiment by inviting participants from their university to the laboratory for a study of eye-tracking. Firstly, volunteers were to identify political stories from various news websites so that the camera could pick out the baseline eye-tracking measures. They were to read the news articles to obtain good figures, regardless of what they chose to