Teach how to fail

Parents should teach their children that FAILURE is part of life. In fact, to fail is a chance to understand that it’s not the right direction and that there is another way to do it better.When babies learn how to walk… do they freeze and cry? Usually not as their mum or dad tells them: “it’s alright, try again.” The moment they are on their feet again, they even go faster becauseto falling while walking is FUN (witness it here)!

When we grow up we are taught how to be perfect, how to win, or how to be successful… failure is banished. Why do parents notlet their children find themselves, let them be what they really want to be? Because they want them to succeed and to have a safe and secure life.

So we find a safe job and we keep ourselves busy in order to avoid to face the truth: we are not havingthe life that we really want. Our social conditioning says that earning money is the most important thing in life, so we start doing things we don’t like doing because we believe that we don’t have another choice. We are stuck and afraid to change anything in our life because we can lose what we have for something we don’t know. But FEAR is often described as FALSE. EVIDENCE. APPARENTLY. REAL. So why should we be afraid of something that is not real?Allan Watts explains in his lecture If Money was no object: “Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing then a long life spent in a miserable way”.

Actually, I wish that every parent could say to their children:

« Don’t let someone tell you that you can’t do something. Not even me. You only have one life so live it right, do what your heart tells you and go for that one thing in the world that will make you truly happy.” – (a true and moving story)

Famous Failure

To illustrate my statement, I am sharing some examples of failures that brought fame to people whowere not “supposed” to succeed… but they did not give up and pursued their dreams:

After being cut from his high school basketball team, he went home, locked himself in his roomand cried… : Michael JORDAN, World famous basketball player ;

He was rejected from the USA film school 3 times… : Steven SPIELBERG, Winner of 3Academy Awards ;

His teacher told him he was too stupid to learn anything… : Thomas EDISON, Inventor of thelight bulb ;

He was not stupid but courageous enough to keep trying and trying. He also said: « Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time. »

Things that we truly know are not things we have heard or read, but rather things we have lived,experienced and felt.

It’s all about taking a chance… do what you love and everything else will fall into place. If you are really good at what you love doing, you will even become a master of it, and then you will be able to get a good fee for it

A friend of mine, wanted to change his job. At that time, he was working in an IT department. When Imet him again several years ago, I asked him if he quit his job but he didn’t. In the end, he decided to go back to University to become a lawyer (again a safer status and job… in appearance). I will never forget the day we left the badminton hall, when he suddenly stopped, looked at me… then, stared at his hands… and exclaimed: “What I really want to do is to work with my hands, be creative, work with wood and create furniture… this is what I am good at… “. He said it all.

So please, don’t look at the safe side and take a chance. Because you never know how absolutely perfect something could turn out to be. And how amazing you can be by doing what you are good at. And finally, FAIL BIG, FIGHT for your dream, never give up, and one day, you will be able to FLY and reach the sky”… because it is all about believing in yourself and in your dreams.

an interactive article,

written by Cécile Devroye