When people list their biggest fears, it never fails that "failure" will always find its way to the top. We face it, we fear it, and we loathe it. We judge it, in ourselves and in others. We can't completely hold ourselves accountable for our elitist attitudes--we live in a society where success is the litmus test for our worth. First place is recognized by all, and second place is no place.
It follows us every day. With every accomplishment, the bar is raised even higher. Success becomes a helium balloon, rising so high that we can no longer touch it; the irony is that it falls back into our reach only after barrelling to the ground in a crashing halt. It takes far more work to inflate it and lift it again than it did to first launch it.
Unfortunately, we can't win all the time. So how do we reconcile the inherent need to succeed with the unfallible truth of failure?
Failure isn't all bad. Columbus failed to find a shortcut to the Orient, but he did discover a new land--and even failed to recognize that much. Do we remember him as a failure, or consider him a blind success? Mapmakers would be out of business if someone didn't get lost here and there. Penicillen was a complete accident because one's experiment failed.
Of course, we fear not having our own personal dreams come true because, let's face it, it hurts. Losing a friend because of your own mistakes is painful and hard to face. However, it's that experience that helps to make you a better friend to the people in your future. Failed relationships are only mistakes if we don't learn something from that experience and take those lessons with us. Just the same, unrecognized goals can be a source of frustration, but they can also lead us to an even better path that we never would have chosen had what we thought we wanted become a reality.
The most successful people in this world will be the first to brag about their own failures. A truly successful person realizes that these disappoinments are what shaped them, changed them, and made them even more determined to win. They don't let a loss bring them down and make them stop; rather, they rise to the challenge and become determined to overcome the obstacles that stand in their way. After all, even the Great Wall of China comes to end somewhere. A truly successful person won't let the wall stand in their path, but will walk along it until they find the end, and then, they will simply walk around it.
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Ya know, someone once told me that drive creates more success than intelligence. Do you think that is true? My son is intelligence, modest i.d. of 132. But he has no drive to succeed whatsoever. I get so frustrated watching him just lazy away his talent. Path of least resistance and all.....
Anyway, hope this helps.
Intelligence is useless without ambition. But fear not--if your son is still young, then ambition isn't necessarily gone forever. Many of us who were young and smart found ourselves academically spoiled, and (for me, at least), it took walking away from that world for a while and, well, failing, before I could obtain any form of ambition. Even then, it came slowly at first, building as I began recognizing my new accomplishments.
Granted, I do wish I could have recognized what I had then, but I must say that I am much happier with the path I've chosen now than the one I was travelling down then. It's been more difficult returning to school and repaving my own way, but I appreciate what I have now more than I ever did then.
I think your writng is really impressive and I hope I could use some sentences or examples of it in my essay. Does it matter? If you read this comment, no matter agree or not, please email me. (hanjiewang@yahoo.com) thanks a lot.