The opposite of success is not failing, it is quitting

Growing up I always heard that success comes with hard work. As far as I can remember, success was a place that I dreamt of and was willing to do anything to achieve it. The definition of success is different for every individual. What I never thought or prepared for, was the steps undertaken towards the end goal is not going to be easy and disrupted by mistakes that are considered failings. Every time I failed, I was told that failing is not good, and that it was taking me away from success or realizing my goals. These thoughts being reinforced on a constant basis led me to the fear of failing.  

It is a known fact that a child is born with two innate fears, a) fear of falling and b) fear of loud noise. All other fears are acquired. The environment we typically grow up in, does not treat failing as a steppingstone of learning or growing, but quite the opposite. This enforces the fear of failing that leads to inhibition of taking any steps towards the goals. In most cases, as we tend to fail more frequently, we choose quitting as the best option.

Every time we fail, we do not to realize that we learnt something in the process, that is taking us closer to our goal of success.

“I have not failed. I've just found ten thousand ways that won't work.” – Thomas Edison

 What I learnt through my trials and tribulations of making mistakes and failings is that it did not make me a failure. If one continues to learn from their failings and stay on course their chance to succeed is sure, provided they do not quit.

A friend of mine use to say to me, “If you are walking on a live railway track, what are the chances of you being run over by a train? It is 100%, because sooner or later the train will show up. The same stands true for a journey of success, don’t know when the success train will show up, but the chances are 100% provided you stay on the track.”

“A failure is only a failure if you allow it to become failure” – Robin Sharma