YES, FAILURE IS AN OPTION
If you’ve been an Olympic insomniac over the past week you’ll be aware that the Australian Institute of Silver (previously the Australian Institute of Sport) has been in full swing in London.
As Australians compete with the best in the world it has been gut wrenching to watch James Magnussen, Emily Seebohm and the rowers from the almost-awesome foursome express everything from chagrin to despair at having garnered a silver medal.
Holly Bleasdale’s hopes for an Olympic pole vault medal ended in bitter disappointment as nerves appeared to get the better of her. The 20-year-old UK athlete was on the verge of tears as she failed her final attempt at 4.55m, well below her best this summer of 4.71m. Photograph via mailonline.com.
These sublime athletes have been apologetic for failing to win gold but have they really failed and even if they have, is failure really such a dire thing?
Failure is an option.
Despite what motivational speakers with suspiciously fulsome hairstyles will tell you, failure is not only an option it’s a stone cold certainty.
You just can’t live without failing, and even success is built on failure. Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because he “lacked imagination”. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team. Henry Ford went broke five times before he got his cars on the road to success.
Every success has failure as part of the back story but the real question is, what is failure anyway?
Ultimately, failure is expectations not met.
The Dalai Lama has said that expectation is the foundation of failure but where do those expectations come from?
When he came last in the final of the 400m, Australian runner Steve Solomon beamed at his interviewer and said that he was totally happy with the result quipping, “Somebody has to come last and today it was me.” Solomon had exceeded his own expectations by making the final but if Kirani James, the winner of the event, had run last, his reaction would have been different because his expectations were different.
All of which goes to show that failure is a matter of perception, not an absolute. In fact, if you look at it honestly, failure can be a positive experience.
Failure is a gift.
Success can be fun, there’s no point denying that but failure offers something priceless that even success can’t offer; failure offers feedback.
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10 Responses to this article
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Margi Macdonald August 9, 2012
When did Second-Best in The Whole Wide World of Human Endeavour and Achievement become a sign of FAILURE?
Geez!!!
Have I missed something?-
Sara August 9, 2012
I agree Margi – 7th or 8th best in the world in the world is pretty awesome too!
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Lucy August 9, 2012
Yes, you missed the nuance of an article which ponders the perception of failure following the sight of some competitors behaving as though they have failed when they didn’t win gold. The author isn’t calling anyone a failure, rather, he says: “These sublime athletes have been apologetic for failing to win gold but have they really failed and even if they have, is failure really such a dire thing?”
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moiby August 9, 2012
Thank you for this article!
‘Failure is a matter of perception.’ So true, and yet I’d never thought of it that way … good insight.
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sleybell August 9, 2012
Agreed. I have been perturbed by early schooling that did not give out winning ribbons at a ‘Olympiad’. The reason? Because they didn’t want to upset the children that lost. To my mind that only tells the ‘losers even more strongly that losing is a bad thing. The ability to assess expectations and compare them with results is a life skill we all should strive for.
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Anthony August 9, 2012
Agree with the article, failure is relative. One of the hallmarks of a champion is extraordinary drive to win , to be the best. Second best is perceived by the true champion themselves to be a failure by their own standard. What the public perceives as a failure can be entirely different. Case in point, Sally Pearson was disappointed in Beijing to receive the Silver medal despite being lauded by the Australian public for her efforts, and in fact used the ‘failure’ as motivation to win gold in London.
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Ro. Watson August 9, 2012
There is beauty in not coming first~Tracey Moffatt made beautiful photographs of Olympians coming fourth~ in her “Fourth” series
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Michael August 16, 2012
If you are achieving all your goals
seek more challenging goals. -
annabelle November 9, 2012
Embrace failure; fear of failure is cause for self-conscious paralasis! I have stared failure in the face many times…. and carried on trying!
