Failure
As I near the finish line in Colin Powell's book, I think about how often he has discussed failure in the book. He's very matter-of-fact about failure: it happens. The question is not whether or not a human will fail -- he or she will. The question to Powell is simply what happens after failure.
On this topic, here's a significant exchange documented in the book:
"I recall a few years ago speaking at an elite and very highly structured Japanese high school. After my remarks, designated kids from the honor roll lined up to ask me questions typed out on cards and fully vetted by their teachers. After the first couple of questions, I turned away from the line and invited questions from anyone in the audience, with my eyes particularly focused on the back rows, where I used to try to sit."
"One girl about 13 raised her hand, and I called on her."
"Are you ever afraid?" she asked. "I'm afraid every day," she continued. "I'm afraid to fail."
How brave she was.
"Yes, I told her, I'm afraid of something every day, and I fail at something every day. Fear and failure are always present. Accept them as a part of life and learn how to manage these realities. Be scared, but keep going. Being scared is usually transient. It will pass. If you fail, fix the causes and keep going."
The room was deadly silent. Because every one of the young high achievers had the same question.
Even if they were too scared to voice it.
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I know this issue all too well. A counselor once told me that there must have been a sign over my front door every day when growing up, and that sign must have read "Thou Shalt Not Fail." In some ways, I love the way the counselor interpreted my adolescence. It was never too much pressure for me back then, though I never felt that it was too much pressure at the time. But it was unrealistic.
The fact is this -- life is full of failures -- little ones, medium ones, large ones, and Big Gulp size ones. I'm learning that one failure after another now; and I don't like it, but I'm not as afraid of it now as I used to be.
That fact alone -- that is, the universality of failure -- is sufficient to remind me that there must be some reason (some positive rationale) for failure. And there must be something meaningful to getting up again after getting knocked down again.
James puts it this way (The Message): "Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life if forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you can become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way."