28th October, 2022
I recently read the International Bestseller “Dare To Fail” by author Billi Lim who defines success as a day to day progressive journey towards a predetermined worthwhile goal.
Billi Lim has touched an altogether different aspect of ‘Success’ phenomenon. Generally people know the history of the success stories of famous people, that’s why we hardly know about their failed efforts before becoming successful.
This is the reason why people generally consider a failure as a bad attempt, and they look down to those who fail. But this book is the answer to change the conception of failure in the people.
He wonderfully presented the history of all those successful people in the world who failed many times than they succeeded.
The book starts with the author’s childhood, his career, when he failed in his career; in business; in relationships and how did he react to those failures.
To encourage the persons who failed, he has shown the value and importance of the failure in the journey of great success.
He has also given various tips to face the failures and go ahead without loosing hope.
A statement that really resonated with me was, “The calm which puts us to sleep, is more fatal than the storm which keeps us awake. Nothing worthwhile is achieved without a struggle, other wise every body will achieve it, if it is so easy.”
No better words on failure were ever spoken, than the J.K. Rowling speech at Harvard in 2008, speaking about the benefits of failure, and how she dealt with them in her own journey from living the life of a young divorced mother near poverty to becoming the creator of the Harry Potter series of books that have sold more than 400 million copies, earned her over a billion dollars and created the opportunity for her to do what she was born to do.
“Why do I talk about the benefits of failure? She asked. “Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.
Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.”
“Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above the price of rubies.”
If you have ever failed in life, and recovered, you will clearly understand what Rowling says in this lecture.
Hence, don’t be afraid of Failure, it has far more to teach us than success could.
Dare to fail, learn, succeed and stay blessed forever.