Fall From Five Failures

Once there was a businessman who always failed five times to make his business prosperous and blamed the world treated him unfairly. He always bore in his mind that failure is destructive and make no progress for him. He was so sad and saw no light in the end. Then he came to see his friend who was very wealthy and successful. Then he asked:

“Hey, what makes you sad and not energetic at all? You are totally different than before this. Would you tell me what happens?”

“My business always faces failure and never grows in progress. I feel so distressed right now.”

“You haven’t failed yet, but you just found your ways that won’t work. Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes. Besides that, it is a mistake to suppose that men succeed through success; they much oftener succeed through failures.”

“So, you mean we will get very little wisdom from success, right? But I always think that why the world treated me unfairly, why not others?”

“We read the world wrong and say that it deceives us. Actually, you don’t notice that the world always breaks everyone down. In the end, only they will get stronger in the broken places.”

“Yes, you’re right. Why I never thought like that?! I should change my perspective towards the world. But I don’t have ideas anymore. I’m so blurred.”

“It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all. Try to recall what you have done before this. I’m sure that you have learned something from them. Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

“I try to think over what you have said right now. Maybe I overlooked after all. I don’t notice the slightest opportunity in front of me when doing things. Anyway, thanks for your insights.”

“You’re welcome. Remember, there are two kinds of failures: those who thought and never did, and those who did and never thought. The lessons of life amount not to wisdom, but to scar tissue and callus.”