What are the similarities between Charles de Gaulle, Steve Jobs, J.K. Rowling, Charles Darwin, and Churchill, Edison, and Barbara? Their similarities go beyond their remarkable success. What is the truth? The answer can be found in the book Celebrating Our Failures.
Celebrating Our Failures is written by French writer Charles Pepin. He is a famous French philosopher and novelist who has devoted his life to making philosophy a force in everyday life. His work has been promoted to more than twenty countries. This book aims to introduce the healing power of philosophy and bring readers out of the dead end of value.
In the author's view, the similarity of de Gaulle, Jobs, and others is that they all experienced failure before success. Because of failure, it brings an opportunity for reflection and cheering, which leads to a career.
Why do you say that? Why celebrate our failures?
01 Failure is about learning faster
From the beginning of World War I to the middle of World War II, de Gaulle fell silent for nearly thirty years. It was these setbacks that forged his strong character and inspired his sense of mission.
Darwin abandoned his studies in medicine and theology. He boarded the Beagle on a circumnavigation of the globe and thus became a brilliant scientist. Without his academic failures, he might not have had time to embark on this fateful journey.
Many examples prove that failure has many benefits, can sharpen will, stimulate fighting spirit, empower and so on.
In the winter of 1999, in the city of Tabun, France, a 12~14-year-old junior world championship was held. On the field, Spanish teenager Rafael Nadal was defeated by his peer, France's Richard Gasquet, lost his chance to win the title, and suddenly collapsed in his chair, deeply shocked by the opponent's attack.
Gasquet, known as "the little Mozart of French tennis". At the age of 9, he made headlines in Tennis Magazine. His perfect posture, the beauty of hitting the ball with one hand, and his aggression during the game are all hitting the opponent's self-esteem. Gasquet is the future French tennis dream champion.
However, after this battle, Nadal seems to have been endowed with magical powers. He won the Junior Championship tennis the following year and went on to maintain his world number one record for many years, winning more than 100 tournaments, including 22 Grand Slam titles.
Of course, Gasquet is also a great player, once ranked seventh in the world, but he has never won a Grand Slam. In terms of career height, far lower than Nadal.
What's the difference? The author argues that because Nadal experienced many failures in his early days. Failure taught him much more than winning games. Failure allowed him to find his talent faster, forcing him to create a forehand technique unlike any other.
On the contrary, Gaskay had a smooth debut until he was 16 years old. In his precious formative years, he failed not enough and not early enough.
Success is indeed comfortable, but it is not as instructive as failure, and failure is about learning faster. Unfortunately, we all fell into the "fast lane", and even the proud Zhang Ailing couldn't help but say things like "fame should be early".
Failure is habitually considered sinful by us, and we don't know that failure is the beginning of finding our own path. The sooner we fail, the sooner we question reality. This is a condition for success.
02 Mistakes are the only way to understand the truth
Great scientists, like us, make mistakes at first. They become scientists because they don't stop at their initial ideas. The philosopher and poet Bashira said, "Truth is only an error that is corrected." ”
The corrected mistakes are like a springboard, a driving force on the road to knowledge. For scientists, correcting mistakes is the only way to learn, the only way to discover the truth.
Edison, the founder of GE, applied for thousands of patents in his lifetime. But when he invented the electric light bulb, he tried thousands of times before finally heating a tungsten filament to an incandescent state in a gas-filled bulb.
The reason why he did not despair is usually answered with extraordinary will. But this thinking misses the most crucial point, which is that he knows that he must fail before he can succeed.
His aides once asked him how he could endure "tens of thousands" of failures, and Edison said, "I didn't fail, I just discovered ten thousand ways that didn't work." He knew that scientists can only learn from mistakes, and to correct a mistake is to take a step towards truth.
Edison's attitude shows us how failure should be treated. Even if tungsten didn't succeed, he didn't fail: trying is succeeding.
Einstein also said: "A series of successes does not prove the truth, but only one failed experiment can prove the theory wrong." ”
For us, it's really time to change the way we think about failure. A failure does not mean that the person is stupid; A temporary diploma does not represent his ability for a lifetime. Encourage children to try and make mistakes in order to grow faster.
03 How to learn to be daring
Failure teaches humility, failure is an opportunity to reinvent oneself, and failure does not mean being a loser. All great success comes from taking risks and accepting possible failures. To dare to act is to dare to fail.
De Gaulle risked a crushing defeat when he went to London; Putting telephones, Internet and TV into the same "pipe", Xavier Nier risked losing everything ...
One can go through this life in peace and wait until you are ready, but the price of doing so is to pass by great success, let alone truly understand yourself.
Nietzsche believed that it takes a sense of risk to truly live. This is what "being who you are" means. To be who you are means daring to be yourself and taking on your uniqueness in this rules-respecting society.
Modern enterprises pay attention to "process", whether workers or leaders, must follow procedures. In an age of process, creativity seems to be a flaw, and failure is also considered proof of incompetence.
In this environment, some people have to accept the reality that they can not make any waves in their lives, nor will they take the initiative to take risks and live their lives without doing anything. Others will summon up the courage to change the path of life and give themselves a new life.
There is a price to pay for taking action, but the cost of not taking action is even greater. The biggest threat to life is that because you dare not fail, you can only live without failure.
René Charles wrote in the collection of poems "Early Risers": Create your luck, grasp your happiness, and go on adventures.
The winner of life, British entrepreneur Branson, was the first person to cross the Atlantic in an inflatable ball and the oldest kitesurfer to cross the English Channel. He created Virgin Atlantic, breaking the monopoly of British Airways. Even such successful people have experienced many failures.
He launched Virgin Cola with a high profile, which ended in delisting; He once built a makeup brand and failed miserably; He wanted to compete with Apple, and it turned out to be Virgin Pulse instead of a music player...
Blanlin's entrepreneurial venture began with failure. At the age of 21, he founded a record label, only to have his mother mortgage the house in order to pay a hefty fine.
This failure forced him to learn management knowledge, and he had to accelerate the development of the company in order to pay off his debts.
But when he talks about failure, he always keeps a smile, laughing and admitting that his opponent is stronger than himself, and he can't become Jobs. His experience confirms the saying: luck only smiles at the bold.
To learn to dare to act, there are mainly the following points: one is to improve your own ability, the second is to appreciate the courage of others, the third is not to pursue perfection too much, and the fourth is to remember that failure without courage is more uncomfortable.
Losing a game without trying will only leave a bitterness that is difficult to swallow. Without full efforts, failure to play our talents is decided, which is our biggest regret.
Great oaks from little acorns grow.. Embrace failure, celebrate our failures, and grow without failure. Failure is not a pleasant thing, but it opens a window to reality that allows us to use our talents and become a better version of ourselves.