Failure: A Part Of Success

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This is one of the phrases that has kept me going in all of my plans, dreams and ambitions. It has been my driving force and a powerful one at that.

Failure is a state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective and may be viewed as the opposite of success. Merriam Webster Dictionary defines it as a lack of success. This is what really piss me off.

As a writer, failure is one of the experiences I have come to be at peace with. It is an inevitable part of my life. It has been and it will always be. Don’t get me wrong, I am not placing a curse on myself neither am I wishing myself a bad luck. I am being sincere.

I started writing at a young age, I have been writing ever since. I have written novels, drama and even prose. I have written articles, long and short, I still do. But the fact that I have written so much didn’t guarantee my success.

I have participated in several writing competitions. There is no denying that I write, but I have never emerged a winner in any of them. Some of the competitions I have participated in are; Jemila Abubakar Memorial Essay Competition, Wole Soyinka Essay Competition and The Writers College’s 5-Day Creative Writing Challenge. This last one, I participated in twice in a row.

Failure shouldn’t make you stop.

I am not writing this for your sympathy but to tell you that Failure didn’t stop me. It shouldn’t stop you either. Because as much as I have failed, I have also learned.

I have learned that I can be better than I was, that I am human and prone to fail, and that failure doesn’t define who I am. It has made me more resilient than I was, to go on and test my limits. And in every time that I failed, I learned one wrong way of doing something.

Failure as part of success.

I believe, failure is a part of success rather than a path to success. Success is not a destination but a journey filled with failures. I am not dismissing the claim that failure is a path to success, but failure as a part of success, is more reliable. Face it, you will still fail even when you’ve become successful.

Understanding that failure is paramount for success is necessary to keep you resilient when you are experiencing failure and realizing that failure is a part of success not just a path to success, will keep you humble even in your place of success.


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