Practice makes man perfect. No. Wrong. I believe, failures make a man more perfect – provided he learns from his failures.
Failure, 
is actually a state of mind, a perception, or a thought process. Basically it is an event – and this event can be thought of as a success or failure based on its effect on one’s life. One’s failure can be others’ success and vice versa.
We often hear from achievers that they built their success on failures. But, that success comes only when a person who thinks himself as a failure faces his failure head-on.
Don’t deny the failure. Accept it wholeheartedly. Admitting a mistake doesn’t hurt ego, it hurts future success.
Unless one leaves behind the thoughts of his failure, they cannot move forward, because thoughts about failure are a burden on their mind, and with that burden it is difficult to focus on the future.
As I said earlier, failure is basically a perception. If one perceives an event as a failure – which may be seducing a girl, cracking an exam, getting a job, making a friend or making a loss in business – these events start appearing bigger than the life. There will always be an alternative to these events, and one must train their mind to see this alternative.
Most of us try to convince ourselves that the failure is the nail in the coffin and we stop staring at the light at the end of the tunnel.
Failing is not the end, but an opening to other alternatives. If one remembers Al Gore, the Vice President of USA during Bill Clinton’s Presidency; he contested in the 2000 Presidential election against George W. Bush and lost the race narrowly.
Everyone thought he would win the race that year hands down, but he did not.
Later he championed the cause of climate change; he produced a stunning documentary on the subject, An Inconvenient Truth , and popularized climate change science.
In 2007 he won Nobel peace prize along with IPCC – and that is how we remember his name today. He is just one example.
History is full of men and women who built their empires on the foundation of failures.
Al Gore did not slip into depression after losing the Presidential race in 2000. Instead he built his career on his failure.
Most of the times we let an event which we perceive as failure, to depress us, to make us sad. The ultimate goal of an individual is to attain happiness and peace of mind. If anything comes in the way of these pursuits, that thing should be shunned away, rejected outright and banished from the mind itself.
Instead of thinking about failure which snatches happiness away from you, it is better to look at the other windows of opportunity that have opened for you. Looking at the closed window will darken your mind, makes you blind to innumerable opportunities awaiting you.
If one studies history carefully, it is shaped by the personalities who faced many failures before they became successful in their chosen areas. A guy who kicks his failure in the butt and moves on, is the one who becomes successful in future.
Most of the times when we fail at something, we tend to get depressed by the thought of losing something so much desired for so long, or by the very thought of not getting it again; sometimes, it is just the perception that it was the best thing that we lost, or failed to attain – which makes us very sad.
There are other ‘best things’ in life, which we lose sight of, after failing at something.
In fact there is no best thing in life. Because desire has no limits, after getting the best thing, we start looking for another best thing – ironically which existed all along while we were busy pursuing the other initial ‘best thing’.
The world is full of opportunities – so called better things – we just need to open our eyes to them.
To summarize, one must stop thinking about ‘failures’ and start looking at the future. Happiness is the victim when we dwell on our failures. By training our mind to look at other opportunities when we fail at something , we can avoid the sadness that comes with it.
Even success does not guarantee happiness. When we learn to minimize our desires, we find our happiness.
Have you failed at something? Well, start dreaming a new dream, and chase it. Let any failure not block your mind, but let that failure open your mind for other beautiful things in life.
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