Success And Failure, In A New Light

I recently read the book 'The Innovation Paradox : The Success of Failure, the Failure of Success' by Richard Farson and Ralph Keyes. It has some interesting key points.

We as humans tend to polarize things. Everything needs to be either black or white. We tend to see success as very good thing and failure as a very bad thing.

The fact is, that success and failure are very close to each other, like two sides of the same coin. In fact, people (or companies) who succeed in the short term may fail in the mid-long term and vice-versa. Failure is not a failure if everything was done and prepared right, and most important of all, if we are able to learn something from it. A failure must then be seen, as a stepping stone in the way to success.

The only true failure, is in failing to try. Courage is to act not by lack of fear, but in spite of fear. The most exhilirating and exciting moments that we as humans can experience, is in the pursuit of something which we perceive as challenging, difficult, unattainable... even impossible. The sweetness is in the hunt, not in the achievement itself. Once the goal is achieved, we are immediately filled with a void, and we immediately look for another more ambitious goal...

That's one of the greatest mysteries and beauty of the Human kind - an eternal discomfort, an eternal hunger, an eternal search for higher goals and dreams.

We are far more likely to regret the things we didn't do than the things we did, specially because we will never know the outcome of the things we didn't do.

So don't be afraid to fail, don't be afraid to get out of your comfort zone. Try and fail, and learn, and try again,,, fail some more and try yet again... that is, my friend, the secret to a successful fulfilling life.