Table of Contents
APPROACH
The Introduction: You can start with an abstract, theory, anecdote, or metaphor.
THE BODY
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- The Interpretation: Explain the holistic meaning of the topic in different terms.
- The Elaboration: How failure teaches us more than success.
- The Way Forward: While failure offers profound lessons, success should not be overlooked.
The Conclusion: If we learn, failure becomes a gateway to success and a testament to the extraordinary resilience of the human spirit.
THE INTRODUCTION: Mandwa is a blink-and-miss village in the centre of the Balaghat Mountain Range in Maharashtra’s Beed district. Being one of Maharashtra’s most drought-prone districts, the village has naturally gifted its residents an ocean of challenges that are enough to defeat each and every individual in life. Local residents opine that if someone is born here, the circumstances are such that they are destined to be a failure. Who would have thought that a simple boy from a humble farmer’s family, rooted in a place that offers nothing but failure and grief, would thump the mighty Kenyans to become the first ever non-Kenyan champion in steep chase to do so? Avinash Sable, the Indian steeplechase champion, exemplifies the profound lessons that failures can teach us. His journey from a small village in Maharashtra to competing at the highest level in athletics is fraught with setbacks and disappointments.
Young Avinash was fond of running, which arose out of the compulsion to get water, food and education from a distant city. He got selected by talent scouts for distance running under a state government scheme, only to get ousted as the coaches didn’t find enough potential in him. Even before he could dream of being a sportsman, Sable’s career had crashed. He returned to Mandwa after his first brush with ‘failure’.
However, Avinash was not willing to surrender soon. He began working as a mason. People of Mandwa are generally left with two options in life, either work as a labourer in and around the village or move to a city and become a daily wager there. Farming, due to the water crisis, isn’t a viable career option for the majority. Later, Sable, banking on his brief sporting background, chose to take part in a recruitment camp held by the Army. In December 2012, Sable became a part of the army and also ‘the first from the village to get a proper job with a fixed monthly salary’. In 2015, stumbling upon one life goal after another, from masonry to army, Sable finally found his calling in sport. He’d practice to get back into shape in the spare hours after duty, even if it meant running for hours in the middle of the night. When Sable qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, the Maharashtra government awarded a cash prize of Rs 50 lakh. However, failure again overwhelmed him in Tokyo.
However, success isn’t far for those of act and aspire. As Helen Keller once said, “We can accomplish anything if we stick to it long enough”. Rewriting India’s national record for the ninth time with a timing of 8:11.20, Sable struck at the heart of steeplechase royalty’s dominance by claiming a historic Commonwealth Games silver in the 3,000m steeplechase at Birmingham (2022).
The Interpretation
By exploring the essence of Avinash Sable’s story, we can recognize how failures shape our lives, reveal our weaknesses, and ultimately provide the impetus for personal and professional development. Success stories often captivate our imagination and inspire us with tales of triumph over adversity. However, it is in the depths of failure we find invaluable lessons that shape our character and propel us towards growth. Sable’s story serves as a poignant reminder that we learn far more from our failures than we do from success alone.
The Elaboration
Learning as a Process:
Learning is not a linear path of constant success but rather a complex and dynamic process. Failures are integral to this process, forcing us to confront our limitations, question our assumptions, and reevaluate our strategies. Failure acts as a catalyst that compels us to reassess our actions, attitudes, and strategies. It provides an opportunity for introspection, enabling us to delve deep within ourselves and uncover our weaknesses. When faced with failure, individuals are often driven to analyze their mistakes, seeking to understand what went wrong and how they can improve. This process of self-reflection not only enhances self-awareness but also helps us develop a clearer understanding of our abilities and limitations.
Self-Realization and Improvement:
Failures offer a unique lens through which we can view our weaknesses and shortcomings. They strip away the façade of invincibility and reveal the areas in which we need to grow. In the face of failure, we are compelled to reassess our skills, knowledge, and approach. It is in this process of self-realization that we recognize our shortcomings and embark on a journey of self-improvement. Avinash Sable’s numerous setbacks on the athletic track forced him to acknowledge his weaknesses, leading to targeted training and strategic adjustments that eventually propelled him to success.
Jack Ma, the visionary founder of Alibaba Group, experienced numerous struggles and failures before emerging as one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world. His journey is a testament to the transformative power of failure and the indomitable spirit required to overcome adversity. In the early days of his career, Jack Ma faced a series of rejections and setbacks. After completing his education, he struggled to find employment, receiving rejection letters from multiple companies, including KFC, which famously rejected him. Undeterred, Ma persisted in his pursuit of success, believing that failure was merely a stepping stone towards achieving his dreams.
Ma’s most significant setback came in 1999 when he founded a business-to-business marketplace called Alibaba. The company struggled to gain momentum and attract users in its early stages. As the dot-com bubble burst, investor confidence plummeted, making it even more challenging for Alibaba to secure funding. Ma faced a bleak future, with his company on the brink of collapse. In a desperate attempt to keep Alibaba afloat, Ma and his team launched a new service called Alibaba.com, targeting international buyers and suppliers. This shift in focus proved to be a turning point for the company. Alibaba.com gained traction and became a successful platform, providing a lifeline to Ma’s entrepreneurial aspirations.
Through each failure and setback, Jack Ma never lost sight of his vision. He believed in the power of perseverance, continuously learning from his mistakes and adapting his strategies. His entrepreneurial journey exemplifies the essence of learning from failures and the unwavering determination required to overcome obstacles.
Easy Success and Limited Growth:
Easy success, while momentarily gratifying, often leaves little room for improvement. When success comes effortlessly, we tend to become complacent, basking in our accomplishments rather than striving for further growth. These failures serve as invaluable lessons that push our ideas, innovation, and persistence. By confronting and overcoming failure, they forged a path to greatness, leaving a lasting impact on the world.
Embracing Failure: Lessons from Visionaries
The pages of history are filled with stories of prominent individuals who encountered numerous failures before achieving greatness.
Early in his career, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam faced significant challenges and rejections. After completing his studies in aeronautical engineering, he aspired to join the Indian Air Force. However, he fell short of securing a place in the prestigious institution, facing disappointment and setbacks. Despite this setback, Kalam did not allow the rejection to deter him from pursuing his dreams.
Undeterred, Kalam turned his attention to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), where he joined as a scientist/engineer. In the initial stages of his tenure at ISRO, he encountered several setbacks. One such setback occurred during the SLV-3 (Satellite Launch Vehicle) project, where the launch failed, leading to a loss of the satellite. The failure was a blow to Kalam and his team, but they used it as an opportunity to learn, adapt, and improve their future endeavours. Later on, he worked on the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program (IGMDP) and was conferred with the title of ‘Missile Man of India’.
On the inauguration of his presidency, Nelson Mandela was asked by a report as to what kept him driving through all these years of setbacks and exploitative colonialism (Apartheid). Mandela simply quoted his favourite poem ‘Invictus’ and remarked, “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul”. When one falls, the next step should be to pull oneself up and keep moving on, for that is what glory is and will be.
Organizations Learning from Failure:
Organizations, too, must recognize the value of learning from failure. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), for instance, has experienced setbacks in its pursuit of space exploration. In 2008, ISRO launched its first lunar exploration mission, Chandrayaan-1, with the objective of studying the Moon’s surface and searching for evidence of water. However, the mission faced a setback when communication with the spacecraft was lost abruptly in 2009, just ten months into the mission.
Taking the lessons learned from this incident, ISRO embarked on the Chandrayaan-2 mission in 2019. ISRO applied the knowledge gained from the Chandrayaan-1 mission failure to address the issues related to the communication system and successfully reached the Moon’s orbit, with the orbiter conducting significant scientific experiments and paving the way for future lunar exploration.
Despite limited resources, ISRO managed to design, develop, and launch the Mars Orbiter Mission at a fraction of the cost of other international missions. During the mission, ISRO encountered a critical moment known as the Mars Orbital Insertion (MOI), where the spacecraft had to be inserted into the Martian orbit. The success of this manoeuvre was crucial for the mission’s overall success. Many previous missions had failed at this stage due to the complexities involved. ISRO’s meticulous planning and attention to detail paid off when the MOI manoeuvre was successfully executed, placing the Mars Orbiter in the designated orbit around Mars. This achievement made India the first Asian nation to reach Mars orbit and the fourth space agency globally to do so. Today, ISRO is competing with globally renowned space agencies like NASA in every aspect of space technology.
Conversely, the Indian railways, despite multiple accidents of similar nature, have failed to address their weak areas adequately. The Indian Railways, despite facing recurring failures in terms of accidents caused by signalling errors and derailments, has struggled to learn from these incidents and implement effective preventive measures, which can be seen in the recent Balasore mishaps. This highlights the importance of recognizing failures, identifying weaknesses, and taking proactive steps towards improvement.
The Nature of Success:
While failure offers profound lessons, success should not be overlooked. Success instils confidence, motivation, and a sense of accomplishment. It provides a platform for individuals to showcase their talents and contributions to society. For example, if we look at the Australian Cricket team, they have outperformed every nation in ICC tournaments or otherwise consistently since the year 2000. This consistent run of success built in them the never say die attitude. They won numerous titles without being beaten for a considerable time. The work ethic, dedication and commitment of the Australian team were admired by one all as prerequisites for success.
However, success alone does not breed the same level of self-reflection and growth that failure does. For instance, after almost a decade of dominance in the world of cricket, the Australian team faced several setbacks like the sandpaper incident, questions about the character of some players and so on. This phase of ‘low’ compelled the Australian team to retrospect, take the hard lessons and bounce back with valour, which brought them back to winning ways.
Thus, it is through the interplay of both success and failure that we can achieve holistic personal and professional development. For instance, while failures led Avinash Sable to the path of unwavering determination and purpose in life, his success would certainly instil similar character into others travelling in the same plane of life. So, even learning from other’s failures could work wonders for an individual.
THE CONCLUSION: Failure, with its profound capacity to enlighten and transform, serves as an indispensable teacher in our journey through life. Avinash Sable’s arduous path to becoming a steeplechase champion embodies the essence of learning from failure. Failures force us to confront our weaknesses, embark on a journey of self-improvement, and nurture resilience. The struggles faced by visionaries like Jack Ma, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam further illustrate the importance of failure as a catalyst for growth. By embracing failure, both as individuals and organizations, we unlock the potential to thrive, innovate, and make lasting contributions to society. Failure, when met with perseverance and introspection, becomes a gateway to success and a testament to the extraordinary resilience of the human spirit.
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