Urja Mahesh Karia
In 1879 a boy was born. He was a slow learner and took longer than other kids to speak. His parents thought he would never speak. He spoke his first word at the age of 2. He liked Math but struggled in all other subjects. His teachers said he will keep failing and wanted to disown him. Feeling unwelcomed in his school, he dropped out. He failed his college entrance exams and also dropping his citizenship became stateless. He then went to a new college and got labeled as laziest person in the class, graduated later on at the bottom of his class, and became the only person in his class with no job offer. He tried for military school, and failed there too. He still didn’t give up. His friend got him a job of patent clerk but he didn’t like doing the work so every day he finished his work in 2 hours and later spent entire time doing his own science. He then, made a discovery -, “discovered that light is a particle and a wave at the same time”. He developed the general theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics. In 1922, he received a Nobel Prize in physics. At one point in his life he even got approached to be the President of Israel which he refused. He kept working on the theory of everything (Unified Field Theory). He was potentially ill but refused any kind of surgery and living life artificially. In 1955, at the age of 76 he died wishing he could learn more. He was no other than Albert Einstein. He is an perfect example of, ‘no great success was achieved without failure’.
Failures, setbacks, rejections happen to everyone. But the important thing is how we face them. If Einstein would have gave up when he faced so many failures in life, would he be remembered as the most famous scientist of all time? Would he have made those discoveries which he made? No. He wouldn’t. But he did not let any circumstance disable him. And that is what made him different. Being different from the lot, that is all it took for him. Being different doesn’t mean you stop being yourself just for the sake of being successful. Be how you actually are and everything will sort out on its own.
Failure is nothing but a temporary change in direction to set you straight for your next success. It is the biggest stepping stone to success. When a person fails, he either goes into a cocoon, a cocoon of fear, doubt and insecurity or he dreams bigger than he did the first time when he failed. The second type of people let their failures drive them. They are passionate and more confident. But how? Because, they know what is it that they have to do this time that they didn’t do the first time. They improvise and they change the way they want to look at things.
Everyone fails, even I have. But, that’s how it is. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.
Let things gradually take their course as we do learn things we are supposed to. So we shouldn’t worry about it much. At times, all we need is a reminder about how things should be for our better future and sometimes it comes to us in forms of Failures or Setbacks or Rejections. Just flow like the water along with waves. Don’t let the rocks stop you.
As Robert H. Schuller said, “Failure doesn’t mean you are a failure it just means you haven’t succeeded yet.
(Author may be reached at oorjakaria@gmail.com)
Thanks for the nice & motivational article.
Motivational essay. Do share such thoughts with us.
Inspiring, keep posting frequently since there are many failure persons in this world few of them succeeded, most of failures get disappointed and stop attempting and they need continuous inspiration.
Really very helpful articles with nice examples. Thanks
very supportive for me…
Nice. Very inspirational. Try to post it on FB page too.
Inspiring!!!
Hi Miss Urja,
Thanks for the nice & motivational article. Though i have gone through these types of articles many a times but the presentation of your article is very nice indeed !.
Regards,
B.Nandan
Very Inspiring thought Urja