By ROBERTO ABEDRABBO
There is no such thing as the “overnight success” that most of us are looking for. We often find ourselves confused, looking at Instagram pictures of celebrities with stacks of money on their beds, driving yachts while drinking champagne with hot babes, and think to ourselves: how the hell did they get there so quickly?
Truth is, success can be measured in many different ways. As humans, we all act and think differently from others, which makes our perceptions of success unique. Some people measure success in terms of money and attention, while others want legacy and respect. Whatever it is that you’re looking for, you have to realize that there is no such thing as an easy path towards success, and more often than not, we will all encounter our No. 1 dream crusher: failure.
Failure is defined by Merriam-Webster as a lack of success. Clearly, if you are not succeeding at something, you can consider yourself to be failing. However, the act of failing does not directly imply that you will not succeed in the future; in fact, it means the complete opposite. Most of us fail to realize that failure is simply a function of success, where in order for us to reach the top, we will very likely fall many times.
Success is easy to embrace. It is easy for us to accept winning at a certain event/action because success is a positive feeling that makes us feel full and lively. Meanwhile, failure is a tough pill to swallow. It can make us feel miserable, hopeless and worst-case scenario, give us a reason to give up. Yet, by accepting our failures and learning as much as we can from them, we can gather all of our shortcomings and turn them into positive knowledge that will aid us in our road towards success. By doing so, we are not only giving ourselves a reason to keep going, but we will be better prepared in the future for any deficiency that we encounter, therefore making us stronger individuals, both physically and mentally.
When we take failure and turn it into something positive, we can define it as experience. No matter the intensity of this shortcoming, we will automatically become wiser from accepting defeat and making sure it doesn’t happen again; and if it does, we will be better prepared. Can you remember the difference between the first and fifth time when you didn’t get that job you wanted? I’m sure you weren’t as disappointed on the fifth.
My point is not to scare you about the inevitability that you will likely fail at some point during your life, but it will happen many times after college. I want you to know that even though a situation may become extremely difficult for you to embrace, it will make you stronger. At the end of the day, it is up to you to find the positive and use that knowledge for your future, instead of giving up and facing regret. If success were easy, then everyone would be successful, which is not the case.
Don’t fear failure, embrace it.
Roberto Abedrabbo can be reached at roberto.abedrabbo47@gmail.com