Exploring Failure

I heard about this roadside balloon salesman. He used to sell balloons near the beach. Occasionally, when the crowd dried up near him, he would blow up one of his balloons, a red or a yellow one, and then let them go. Kids playing in the vicinity would notice it and he would soon have more sales.

Presently, a small African child tugged at his sleeve from behind him. The boy asked “Sir, if you could blow up a black balloon, would it go up too?” With the wisdom that normally is not associated with a roadside balloon salesman, he replied, “Son, its not the color of the balloon, that makes it go up, its what’s inside of it, that makes it go up”.

You who are reading this, let me assure you, what’s inside of you is something very unique and remarkable. No one else on this earth has the abilities that you possess. But it’s in your hands to use it for mankind’s benefit and for your creator’s glory, and it’s an awesome responsibility. Or like many others you can take it with you to your grave.

A teacher wrote a report, which read like this,
“He was mentally slow, unsociable, and adrift forever in his foolish dreams."

She was referring to the Genius among Geniuses, Sir Albert Einstein. If he was described as mentally slow and could go on to figure out the theory of relativity, with excellent brains like yours, where are you headed today? Failure is not a condition, today you might miss a mark, but that does not make you a failure.

Thomas Alva Edison is an epitome of failure and so is he an epitome of success and he says,
“Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

Are you thinking, you are not able to reach to levels, your colleague is able to? Do you feel you are not gifted like someone else working with you? Never do that, because your creator does not create any failures. A Jewish king once wrote that we are all fearfully and wonderfully made, each one of us and we are born to succeed.

Many people today think success is measured by what we have, compared to what others have, a car, a home, lots of money in the bank, education and so many other yardsticks. But Success is measured by what you are, compared to what you are capable of being.

True wealth is the summation of all the things that you have that money cant buy and death can’t take away. So sit down today and count your wealth, first by the human assets you posses (family, friends), intellectual assets (wisdom) and then your financial assets. Only then you will know your real value.

Success does not make a man nor does failure break a man, so if you have failed, its just an event. If Sachin scores a duck in a match, does it mean he is a failure as a cricketer? If Federer loses Wimbledon, does it make him a failure in Tennis?

Persistence does pay its rewards at the due time. So this message is sent to encourage you to continue to pursue your goals until you achieve them irrespective of the time it takes and the hurdles you would need to cross.

So here is the message, yesterday ended last night, tomorrow is a brand new day and it’s the first day of the rest of your life. Go on and have a new beginning!