FAILURE IS A BETTER TEACHER
The key to success and happiness begins with a decision for active involvement in life. As I’ve said in other writings, “life is a contact sport”. Take your wins and your losses in stride and continue on with a lighthearted attitude toward accomplishment in spite of the challenges du jour.
Never be afraid to make mistakes. The only people who never make mistakes are those who are not involved in the game. It’s been said that failure is a better teacher than success. George Bernard Shaw agrees: “A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.”
When able individuals fail, they catch their breath, dust themselves off, examine why it happened and correct themselves to operate better in the future. On the other hand, when some people succeed, often they believe have finally the discovered the secret to success and don’t even bother to examine what they did to achieve success. Then when they do fail at some future point (which is inevitable) they can’t correct themselves as they don’t know why they failed.
I would much rather have someone in my corner who had been through the pain of failure and who got back on their feet armed with the wisdom of what when wrong; and how to fix it.
The guy who never takes risks is not engaged in life. I’m not suggesting that you become reckless. There is a distinct difference between calculated, considered risks and reckless irresponsibility.
But when I find someone who is willing to risk it all on a chance that could result in huge advances forward, willing to be in contact with life, engaged in the battle, this person is far more valuable to me when the chips are down. Simply, I don’t trust someone who has “never failed” or “never lost money.” I’d rather have someone on my side who has the battle scars of life and who has learned of their mistakes.
To such people, failure is a better teacher than success. Because they learn from their mistakes. They grow from adversity as much as they do from success. They thrive on challenge, risk and the adventure of active involvement in life. They always expect to win and take close inventory of what occurred if they don’t. In this way, they learn from their failures as much as their successes.
I have always loved that quote by Jack Nickolson, as R.P. McMurphy, in the 1975 movie, “One Flew Over The Cookoo’s Nest.” While 
incarcerated in a mental institution and after failing to escape by throwing a sink through a window, he said to the others watching, “But I tried, didn’t I? Goddamnit, at least I did that.” I’d always prefer to be around someone who tried and if they failed, got up and tried again.
Failure is a better teacher if you let it help you instead of avoiding it.
daniel w. jacobs
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