Failure

Making mistakes is part of the learning process. If we do not fail from time to time, it's a sure sign that we are not challenging ourselves. And failure is often just the opening we need to succeed in another area. For example, when I "failed" to be accepted by Yale for undergraduate study in 1969, I succeeded in entering a fine midwestern university: DePauw. And when I "failed" to pass the U.S. Foreign Service examination in 1975, I succeeded in finding a job in Japan. It seems that each setback gives rise to new opportunities, so we never know when when a lack of success is a true failure or just a signal to change directions.

It is so easy to get caught up in self-pity or despondency when we fail. I carry the following poem with me as a constant reminder of what to value in my life. Each time I read it, my failures seem small and my successes large. Perhaps you feel the same? 


          SUCCESS

To laugh often and love much;
To win the respect of intelligent persons
     and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics
     and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty;
To find the best in others;
To give of one's self;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child,
     a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;
To have played and laughed with enthusiasm
     and sung with exhultation;
To know even one life has breathed easier
     because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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