Success After Failure
Success After Failure
myself to my studies, prepared seriously for
the exams, and never looked back. I dreamed
about attaining a higher degree that would not
only give me a sense of academic credibility but
would also allow me to serve my community. I
passed my high school and college with great
grades and gradually attained a PhD, the high-
est degree earned within my entire family. I am
proud that I never gave up on my dreams de-
spite my setbacks and failures. Everyone, at one
point in his or her life, has tasted failure, such
as losing a job, getting poor grades in school,
failing to get a promotion, or performing poorly
in a recital or a big game...
In the end, the winners are those who keep try-
ing until they achieve victory.
Success consists of going from failure to failure
without loss of enthusiasm. — Winston Churchill
Journalist David Frost suggests, “Don’t aim for
success if you want it; just do what you love and
believe in, and it will come naturally.”
Some of the world’s most successful people
have failed — sometimes more than once.
When you get bogged down by your failures,
remind yourself that sometimes failure is just
the first step towards success. Below, I have put
together a list of highly successful people, from
movie stars to scientists, who experienced mas-
sive failure before they found fame and fortune.
Success After Failure:
Dedication or Resignation
by Nupur Srivastava, PhD
66
SPRING 2017
Thomas Edison’s teachers told him he was
“too stupid to learn anything.” Edison went on
to hold more than 1,000 patents and invented
some world-changing devices, such as the pho-
nograph, practical electrical lamp, and the first
movie camera. His perseverance is clearly em-
bodied in his optimistic saying, “I have not failed
s a young student, I did not take studying or 10,000 times — I’ve successfully found 10,000
academics seriously. I was an average stu- ways that will not work.”
dent during my elementary and middle school
years and always failed in math. My parents and Can you imagine your childhood without Dis-
siblings used to worry about my academic fu- ney? If Walt had listened to his former news-
ture. However, when my high school exams ap- paper editor, you very well could have gone
peared on the horizon, I had a change of heart. your entire life without watching movies like
I became determ ined that I would get passing Dumbo, Bambi, Cinderella, or Mary Poppins.
grades: failure was not an option. I devoted One newspaper editor, upon firing Walt, told
A
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