Sometimes you win, Sometimes you learn

Most people never win, because they are more afraid of losing.  The human mind is designed to learn from repeated mistakes (I scratch that). Some human minds choose not to learn from their mistakes; hence they enjoy repeating the same mistake over and over again while ending up with the same results.
I find the educational school system extremely fascinating. In school, we learn that mistakes are bad, and we are punished for making mistakes. Mistakes, failures, falls, valleys or whatever it is to you is only a path to success. The success stories we read or hear about today never gave up. Society celebrates screw-ups who choose not to give up.
Here is a list of failures turned success.

1. THOMAS EDISON

-          Too stupid to learn anything (By teachers).
-          Fired from his first 2 jobs for being non-productive  (My people will be like your village people are calling your name)
-          Failed 1000 times in inventing the light bulbs that we use globally (1000 times? How did he make it to the 1001th time?)
-          When asked “How did it feel to fail 1000 times?”  His reply “ I didn’t fail 1000 times, the light bulb was an invention with 1000 steps”.

2. WALT DISNEY

-          Fired from his job as a newspaper editor because he lacked “imagination” and had no good ideas.
-          Was bankrupt several times before Disneyland was built.
-          Today his legacy and name lives on.

3. ALBERT EINSTEIN

-          Did not speak until he was 4 years old.
-          Teachers called him lazy and wrote him off (I need to talk to teachers).
-          He was a thinker.

4. RICHARD BRANSON

-          Was dyslexic  (what my people call “Olodo”)
-          Failed to perform several businesses such as Virgin Cola, Virgin Brides (Really Mr. Branson), Virgin automobile, even Virgin Mobile (is that still active?). But he never gave up.


         One characteristic these guys have in common is that they never gave up.  They continued moving and making waves even when the odds were against them.  If they gave up, we would not be talking about them today.
Mistakes are not bad. They become bad when you don’t learn from them. Parents train their kids not to make certain mistakes, especially those that might end their lives. I am not talking about mistakes that end your dreams. NO!
I used to be 100% scared of failure (20% scared now though), that I prayed against failure. In fact, growing up, the main preaching was “Jesus Never Failed, so you can never fail” (Hian). End of the school year, I would pray not to carry last, but make it to the top 5, that was my yearly prayer (never did). Then I understood this concept after 25 plus years of suffering that everyone’s ability is different and can never be measured by the same yardstick. Some folks were great at one and terrible at the other. Some spent longer time understanding the concept, while it takes others less.
Anyone who has never failed before, and tells you to only learn from your success is a fool. Your success story should only last for a while, as we are supposed to learn from the mistakes that granted us the success. 
So do you want to be celebrated? Fail! Its also an option. Thomas Edison failed 1000 times, but at the end, he met the end goal of giving us the light bulb. How many times have you failed? How many times have you had the thought of giving up? Remember, this Failure is an option. Giving up, isn't. 

I leave you with this quote by Winston Churchill “ Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts”.