277. Failure in life is inevitable 

Seneca said: “As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.” But who controls its length or the years? That’s not in our hands. 

Several factors influence this, including our health, birthplace, and family conditions. Ultimately, however, it is our financial situation that determines it.

In her 2008 Harvard Commencement address, J.K. Rowling said, “Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression; it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticised only by fools. What I feared most for myself at a young age was not poverty, but failure.”

She is right. Poverty, by default, breeds failure. If one accepts life as it comes, as most do, that’s true. Few are prepared to fight poverty beyond a certain point. It’s bread, cloth to wear, and a small house to sleep in, and life comes full circle.

The reason is that none of us is ready to accept failure. We encounter failure at times, and that’s enough. We are driven by the desire for success rather than by fear of failure.

Failure is not fun, as some ultra-successful people brag. You are unsure how far the tunnel of failure extends, and for a long time, no light at the end is visible. How long can one stay in the same orbit, waiting with hope? Reality is too big a factor to ignore.

However, if you are aware, there are benefits of failure. There are a lot of examples.

Since I mentioned Rowling earlier, it’s better to talk about her to reach a conclusion.

She says that failure made her determined to succeed because her greatest fear had been realised. She says she felt she was still alive; she still had a daughter whom she adored, an old typewriter, and a big idea. “And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will and more discipline than I had suspected,” she says.

I have come across many people for whom life is a checklist of achievements. But they are the successful ones, and we started with failures, so they don’t count here.

However, let us first enjoy life, try to solve this complicated puzzle, and try to survive at all costs. 

And secondly, getting to know the rock bottom is essentially the one factor we must strive for. From then on, we shall certainly find our path, as it will serve as a searchlight for our lives.