Success from Failure
October 3rd, 2008. Published under The Ultimate You. No Comments.
Even if you understand yourself completely, fear of failure can keep you from following your dreams. After we survive high school and college, we usually get a job and settle into a routine. While we might talk about trying new things and going to new places, we don’t. Routines create a feeling of safety while ensuring that you meet your needs. Despite their benefits, routines can turn into ruts. If we leave our comfort zone, we risk falling short of our goals, but we also seize the opportunity to make great changes.
Many inventions have made great success out of failure. Sir Alexander Fleming, upon returning from a holiday, found one of his cultures of staphylococci contaminated with a fungus. The contamination revealed the antibiotic power of a substance we now know as penicillin, which has saved countless lives. Wilson Greatbatch was trying to devise an invention to record irregular heartbeats. He put the wrong resistor in the device and it began to pulse in a regular pattern, giving him the inspiration for the first pacemaker.
Don’t let fear or failure paralyze you. Some failures can save lives, so break out of your rut and try something new.