Failure – a learning experience?



There are some people I have met who have never failed an examination or test in their lives - so far. I believe some of these have missed out on something. Failing at something or feeling a failure should be a learning experience. Passing every examination or test may lead to over-confidence. Some of the people who have passed everything may also have never failed at interview for a job. In my experience, the latter can result in an arrogant and ambitious approach to work as well as problems dealing with those responsible to them as employees.
There is sometimes a sense of failure when one questions what one is doing at work and the possible guilt feeling if one has not a “proper job” We have to move on from these feelings and progress our thoughts. We should not allow failure feelings to become set in or prolonged. We should look back on our experiences and relationships and be positive. Some failures take longer than others to put on the back burner.

This piece was going to be mainly autobiographical but that is too easy. I have written the autobiography of my failures in another essay. I will start by listing my perceived failures and then discuss failure in a more general sense.
I failed: to pass O level English Literature; to pass mock O level chemistry; to pass my driving test first time; to pass an exam called “conjoint” (a final examination in medicine and surgery that would have enabled me to practice as a doctor); to obtain a higher degree in my Anatomy B.Sc than a lower second; to, in my mother’s eyes, become a consultant; to get higher marks in a postgraduate certificate in primary care education completed in 2001; get re-elected as a metropolitan district councilor in 1983; to pass the Institute of Advanced motorists test, recently; to write any fiction.
Let me describe “rich pig’s worries”. After that you will understand that it is ridiculous for me to worry, at this stage of my life, about the above list of perceived failures. A number of years ago, I was working on postgraduate medical education based at Pontefract General

Infirmary. I was a General Practitioner and I worked closely with a consultant physician, Mick Peake, who was the hospital educationalist. One afternoon I was in the Postgraduate Center at the hospital and he came in looking flustered and worries. He told us that the forthcoming weekend was going to be a nightmare to him. He had to travel all the way to London to buy a new cover for their swimming pool. His partner is a consultant paediatrician. Need I write any more about “rich pig’s worries”?

So what about my list of failures? They are luxury failures. I did not fail to have a fabulously interesting and fulfilled career. I was very upset each time I failed but, in the fullness of time, regarded each failure as a learning experience. At the time of writing, I am learning how to reverse my car round a bend on a road going downhill and how not to go round corners on country roads too fast. I am looking forward to re-taking my advanced motoring test again. I realised that the guy who failed me was right to fail me. Again, failing the advanced motorist’s test is a luxury. I own a great car and have the time to indulge trying to drive better.

What do other sources say about failure? Can we learn anything from these?
Wikipedia (accessed 26th July 2008):
“The criteria for failure are heavily dependent on context of use, and may be relative to a particular observer or belief system. A situation considered to be a failure by one might be considered a success by another, particularly in cases of direct competition or a zero-sum game. As well, the degree of success or failure in a situation may be differently viewed by distinct observers or participants, such that a situation that one considers to be a failure, another might consider to be a success, a qualified success or a neutral situation.
It may also be difficult or impossible to ascertain whether a situation meets criteria for failure or success due to ambiguous or ill-defined definition of those criteria. Finding useful and effective criteria, or heuristics, to judge the success or failure of a situation may itself be a significant task.”

“It is possible to fail in many ways...while to succeed is possible only in one way.” Aristotle. (384 BC – 322 BC)

“You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try.” Beverly Sills. American Opera Singer. (1929 - )

“Don't be discouraged by a failure. It can be a positive experience. Failure is, in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true, and every fresh experience points out some form of error which we shall afterwards carefully avoid.” John Keats. Poet. (1795 – 1821)

“A minute's success pays the failure of years.” Robert Browning. Poet. (1812 – 1889)

“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” Sir Winston Churchill. (1874 – 1965)

“I remember and reflect on my failures more than my successes. That reflection has made me a better person.” Richard Sloan. (1945- )