Random reading: Success and Failure
I was reading a magazine that is published by my fraternity. The Editor’s (Bruce A. Wilson) letter is entitles “The Secret of Success? Dare to Fail”. It caught my eye for a few reasons, the least of which being, it sounded very much like a good way to summarize a lot of little things about one’s worklife.
So let us begin by defining what success is, and what it is not. The media bombards us with the notion that success is all about money and prestige… (references athletes and musicians) .. New York Times columnist Anna Quinden points out that fatal flaw with that approach: “If success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world, but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all.” …
Albert Schweitzer, the Nobel Peace Prize winning philosopher and explorer, said, “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” Pulitzer Prize willing historian, David McCullough, author of an excellent biography of my hero, John Adams, agrees. He said, “Real success is finding your lifework in the work that you love.” …
It’s the second part - pursuing your passion with all your heart - that brings us to failure. How you deal with failure will determine whether you will succeed. Will fear of failure prevent you from confronting life’s challenges or will it drive you to try harder? Robert Kennedy once observed that”Only those who dare to fail greatly will ever achieve greatly”. When you do fail - and you will fail- will you be discouraged and quit or will you try harder? …
Overall, it’s a great piece. The key points:
- If you love what you do, you are successful.
- Failure is at least as important as success
When I was in the eighth grade, I got into a philosophical argument with my History teacher. At the end of the year, she said “I was voted Most Likely to Succeed.” To which I quipped, “and yet you’re a teacher.” (Which is pretty crappy to say, since my mother is a junior high school teacher.) Her instant reply was “Being successful is about more than money. I love my job. I love teaching punks like you the value of an education.”
Okay, so I’m fibbing a bit on the last sentence, but point taken. I’ve been fortunate enough to be in a job that I both enjoy and get fairly well paid for. My wife has actually quit a very good paying job to take one that made her happier. There’s no real chicken-and-egg problem here. Happiness breeds success. If your true desire is for happiness, you’ll also put up with some failure along the way.
[…] points for how to simply be “successful”. It’s also the fact that you need to learn from failure. There are so many people out there who are simply unable to cope with failure. The winners are […]