Fail Fast, The Earlier the Better -The Victory in Losing

Awareness!!!

A call to celebrate failures and losses – they may not actually be what they seem to be. Everything that appears negative in life isn’t solely unhelpful. There may be a hidden positivity which we must grasp after facing the negativity.

Let us look at the two words ‘winning’ and ‘losing’. We take the former to be positive while we take the latter as negative. This is the general view we all have and thus we congratulate people who we see as winners at various events/competitions.

However, the purpose of this write-up is simply to emphasize the importance of losing as a forerunner of the ‘winning’ concept. This means that there may be victory in losing, which makes it less evil.

What if failure isn’t really as bad as we think? What if the height of our success depends on the amount of our failures?-then all will love to fail more in order to win more. 

Let us all imagine, that there are principles invisible to us but which determine how things go on in our lives. Following Plato, we shall call this world the ‘world of forms’ although it differs from that imagined by Plato.

Now let us think again that once an individual picks up something he wishes to achieve (a project in whatever form), several procedures (unknown to the individual) which he/she must fulfill, appear in the world of forms.

Fulfilment of these procedures only seems like so much struggle to the individual in the physical world, whereas it is actually a gradual approach to the achievement of the goal.

Let us become more practical: A skilled painter enrols for a painting competition which takes place annually and loses for three consecutive years but on a fourth trial he wins the competition.

What actually happened according to our established paradigm is that as soon as he took the decision to partake and win the competition, the procedure was established in the world of forms that he will fail thrice before winning.

This is unknown to the painter because he sees himself as a loser, whereas at each year’s failure, he moved a step closer to his ‘victory’. If he had quit after the second or third loss, he may have never won.

As we said earlier, it is usually the normal thing to congratulate the winners, but considering our analysis, it will not be out of place to congratulate those who have lost, on their step further. This is because they reassure their victory in their losing streaks.

Based on the example of the skilled painter, it will not be out of place if one who knew the procedure in the world of form comes up to him after the first loss and says “congratulations on your loss, two more losses to go” or “congratulations, you’re on the train to success.

What we have spoken about may sound strange to most of us and may even seem a stupid analysis. However, a little survey of the trials of some successful people will make us re-think.

The secret behind most of the great achievers in history is their ability to endure and their determination to surmount what seem to be significant obstacles. Those mentioned above had experiences which would have made them quit what they were doing for life. Their stories help to show us that there is victory in losing and failing repeatedly. However, these were preparations for their great ‘winnings’ (success).

What is going on in your mind at this point? This is a call for us all to begin something. If you feel like writing, write. If you have an interest in painting, paint. Does singing captivate you? Sing. If you feel like composing, compose. Do not bother whether or whether not your output is perfect and do not be afraid of the criticisms that may follow.

Do not be afraid of how many times people will call your work trash. Fail and fail again because you know that there is victory in losing continuously. Having in mind our established world of forms, you can as well smile and feel happy when the rejection/criticism/failure of your work takes place because you know you have entered the train of failure which will arrive at ‘winnings’ (success).

Don’t stop trying and don’t try stopping. Since we know that failures will lead to great success, let us begin now so that we fail fast and reach success soonest. If we decide to postpone things, our failure will never begin, and this will delay our success. It is better to begin early, knowing that there is victory in losing and failing in our mission.