A case for failing better

 

‘Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.’ A quote from Samuel Beckett’s penultimate novella, Worstward Ho (1983).

 

Beckett knew that there’s nothing ultimate about failing, that it’s simply another draft towards the completion of the final product. Great thinkers never give in to failure, nor do they dismiss it; they learn from it, use it, and, finally, overcome it.

We’ve surely all experienced the downcast feeling of failure. If we’re brave and adventurous then failure will, at some point, be an inevitability. But we must not hide or forget our failings; we must wear them like scars. And like scars, our past failings tell a story – they remind of what we’ve achieved in the face of self-doubt and toil.

Failure is nothing to be ashamed of. The more we’ve failed, the more we’ve tried.

 

“Fall seven times, stand up eight.” – Japanese Proverb