Failure as an effective teacher - Essay Example

Failure as an effective teacher Failure, the of being unable to meet a proposed goal, is widely regarded as the end of a great path or life, and people often easily get disheartened by the thought of failure. Normally, human beings regard failure merely as the opposite of success and the society has a very bad opinion of people who fail. In the practical world around us, success often offers a sense of joy and accomplishment whereas failure is synonymous with disappointments, misfortunes, and unhappiness.

However, the reality is that failure and success go hand in hand as the former is nothing but a stepping stone to the latter. It is a tricky fact to realize, but a simple example makes this fact easily comprehensible. As babies, none of us were able to make our step without a number of attempts and failures preceding our ultimate success of walking with a sense of pride. As children we never used to think too much about the failures that we underwent, because we were too busy to think about failures due to our thirst for success, i.e. the ability to walk.

As we reflect on it today, we realize that our several attempts and failures to walk were merely stepping stones to our success in achieving it. In the process of achieving our success, we also gained some essential experience which led us to our success, and such experience was caused by our failures in the attempts. Therefore, it is an essential fact of life that failure is the most effective teacher one can get in one’s life, which ultimately leads one to success. Failure is the best and most effective teacher in life, because one can reach the ultimate success through the experience that one gains in every failure of life.

Life is not a bed of roses and is, of course, a mixture of failures and successes. The real winner in life is the one who can accept this reality and makes use of the failures as stepping stones to success. It is through embracing failures wholeheartedly and learning from such experiences that one achieves success in life. The attitude of Thomas Alva Edison, who said “I have not failed; I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work”, is what we require to learn from the great teacher called failure and experience.

Although failure may seem to be a harsh teacher sometimes, it will ultimately prove to be the most effective teacher who not only leads one to success, but also provides the vital experiences in life. Failure and success are like two sides of the coin and we should consider failure as a teacher who can guide us to success. As aforementioned, failure is the stepping stone to success and it teaches one the right path to achieve the ultimate success in life. For this, all we need is a new perception of failure and the determination to move forward disregarding the occasional failures in life.

As John C. Maxwell argues, “failure is simply a price we pay to achieve success. If we learn to embrace this new definition of failure, then we are free to start moving ahead – and failing forward.” (Maxwell) Therefore, failure is the teacher that teaches you to move forward to the ultimate success of life. In short, it is obvious from this discussion that failure is the most effective teacher that can help one achieve the ultimate success in life.Work CitedMaxwell, John C. Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success.

Thomas Nelson Inc. 2007.