Oh! Failure…How Inspiring can it be?

Failure is the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, and may be viewed as the opposite of success. Some term it as “a lack of success”. Lost count of how many times I’ve failed in life, but there’s that one fact I can’t neglect about it which is “Failure is Inspiring”. Maybe saying that I’ve had so many shares of my own failures will re-convince you to believe the last statement. However, I’ll be sharing one of my remarkable failure in life. It all began when I and few of my friends went for an event “startup weekend Lagos”, will be good to catch up on the gist about it here.

After we won the competition on our region in Nigeria, we had to compete with several other winners across the globe. We got lot of votes but we didn’t get to the final stage. It was a failure, note the word WAS. Using that means it’s no longer a failure, it’s a step to being better next time. Life they say is a teacher and Experience is a key factor in making growth. After the final winners were selected, the judges gave their feedback as to why we didn’t get to the final stage. I have to commend the organizers on this, it’s not all competition that you get to know why you fail.

They all had valid reasons but the most striking one was the third one, the problem we intended to solve was not generic, it only addresses some nations of the world. In summary, we came up with a device that enable users know if they are cheated in a gas station by meter tampering or any other means”. In partial agreement with the judges feedback, I also agree that this problem is not experienced everywhere. Nevertheless, we failed and it taught me so many lessons part of which is “To think big when you’re building a product”.

However, in the midst of it all, I can only say failure is a key recipe for success. I came up with a saying, “We’re not quitters, we’re failures!” We’d rather fail a competition three times and eventually pass it than quit and resign ourselves to the idea that we “just can’t get it.” That kind of sob-story defeatism has to be expunged from your mind. While there ARE things that you can’t do — like flying via pixie dust — most of the things you want in life you CAN have, but only if you treat failure as a part of the learning process. If you see failure as an end, that makes you a quitter. You can’t succeed at anything if you quit. Don’t be a quitter, be a failure.

Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time, more intelligently. Each star has a history, and in fact, the biggest names in History wouldn’t have been that big if they wouldn’t have learn from their mistakes and so, from their failures. Every success starts with a failure. Let me show you some of the most inspiring cases of failure the world has ever heard from the most famous, mediatic, creative, intelligent and inspiring people on Earth.

Steve Jobs

At 30-years-old he was left devastated and depressed after being unceremoniously removed from the company he started, Apple, after a power struggle with the board of directors in 1985. Later, he acquired the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm, which allowed him to regain the funds needed to regain control of Apple. An American entrepreneur and inventor, he is best known as the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple Inc. Through Apple, he was widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution and for his influential career in the computer and consumer electronics fields, transforming “one industry after another, from computers and smartphones to music and movies… .” Jobs also co-founded and served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios; he became a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company in 2006, when Disney acquired Pixar.

Oprah Winfrey

Her childhood was frightful and filled with horrible abuse and abject poverty. But, like most successful people, Oprah doesn’t dwell on stuff like that.

“I don’t think of myself as a poor deprived ghetto girl who made good. I think of myself as somebody who from an early age knew I was responsible for myself, and I had to make good.” — Oprah Winfrey

Winfrey was fired from her television reporting job as “she was deemed not suitable for television.” She became, as some might say, the undisputed queen of television with her talk show, “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” Oprah was viewed as an influential figure who inspired people with positive and uplifting messages. She’s also a billionaire.

Thomas Edison

Edison developed many devices which greatly influenced life in the 20th century. Edison is considered one of the most prolific inventors in history, holding 1,093 U.S patents to his name. When he was a boy his teacher told him he was too stupid to learn anything. When he set out on his own, he tried more than 9,000 experiments before he created the first successful light bulb.

Isaac Newton

Many thought that Isaac was born a genius, but he wasn’t! When he was young, he did very poorly in grade school, so poor that his teachers gave up on improving his grades.

The greatest English mathematician of his generation, his work on optics and gravitation made him one of the greatest scientists the world has ever known.

J. K. Rowling

At one point in her life, Rowling was nearly penniless, depressed, divorced and had to raise her child on her own. While writing the manuscript of Harry Potter, she was on welfare. Adding to that, 12 publishers rejected the manuscript. She created Harry Potter, a global brand estimated to be worth $15 billion today.

“Failure meant a stripping away of the inessential.” — J.K. Rowling

Now, if that isn’t a great Zen line, I don’t know what is!

Ben Carson

Ben Carson was born in Detroit, Michigan, on September 18, 1951. His mother, though under-educated herself, pushed her sons to read and to believe in themselves. Carson went from being a poor student to receiving academic honors and eventually attending medical school. As a doctor, he became director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital at age 33 and earned fame for his groundbreaking work separating conjoined twins. In 2015 he announced that he was running for the following year’s presidential election, hoping to gain the Republican nomination. He is one of the party’s leading candidates in the polls.

What more excuse have you got? Now go make something happen.