"Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the life-long attempt to acquire it." -- Albert Einstein. True enough it is. One can imagine a task to be a ladder. When Bob climbs a rung, he is higher than the previous rung, but he is not at the top. On the way, he might miss footing and hurt himself. If, then, he picks himself up and climbs on to reach the top, he has learnt from his fall and achieved his goal. Failures were lurking on each rung of the ladder. But he kicked them off and finally, shook hands with success. Had Bob not missed his footing, he wouldn't have known how not to place his foot on a rung. Maybe, on another day, he will slip and hurt himself too much to be able to rise again because he never learnt his footwork.
As was with Bob, when he slipped off the ladder the first time and learned to climb up again, many of us look back on our actions when we fail and try to infer from them the cause of our endeavour gone astray. Unless, of course, we choose to make ourselves a part of the eighty-five percent that Thomas.A.Edison was referring to when he said, "Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they think; and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think."
Thinking of our failures, when proceeded with in the right spirit, can teach us more than any schooling can do. It is when we attempt to step into an unknown realm that we encounter our doubts and weaknesses. Wisdom lies in taking them in our stride and recalling them when faced by a situation kindred to the previous one. A mistake repeated is an opportunity forgone. A person who has made an error once and then erred in a similar manner again has lost a chance to learn from a mew experience. He is stuck at the first problem and has not moved ahead. But, it is not a fault on part of the 'error' that the person did not learn the first time. It is merely his disregard and refusal to accept his inattention that made him overlook the mistake.
This thoughtlessness, however, is not as harmful as getting depressed and giving up hope is. Negligent people learn late -- they learn when their attitude hits a dead end on the wrong side of the road. At that point they realise that they have got to look into all those mistakes, which they have been sitting on for all this while, over again. But, those who give up hope don't learn at all. They think that failure is the end of the world.
Life's journey, most definitely, does not finish at one mistake. A mistake simply means that one is better prepared to face the world of tomorrow today, than he was yesterday. Mistakes are always a window to polish one character. Successes are too, but even those who habitually scrutinize their faults may, easily, not deem it important to review a sojourn towards success with no thorny bushes and lurking wildcats on the way. For instance, I succeed with the brown ring test for nitrates in the chemistry laboratory everytime. Everybody else, too, follows the instructions to their best efforts. But, they don't succeed. In my knowledge, I did exactly what they did. but my knowledge is limited because everytime I succeeded, I never thought it essential to look back and try to find out what the trick was. If one day, I fail that test, I would no clue as to what amendments I must make in my procedure. Success, here, is not really teaching me as compulsively as failure would have.
That is why, a challenge is what one must put one's foot into. That is what all wise people have said all these years and so it will continue to be said. A challenge means more chances of mistakes and more mistakes mean more room to correct oneself. As opposed to a challenge, the easy way would not teach half as much. Moreover, a success achieved at the and of a challenge is more complete and advantageous. In this context, Robert Frost, in his poem 'The Road Not Taken', wrote, "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood and I / Took the one less traveled by / And that has made all the difference."
As was with Bob, when he slipped off the ladder the first time and learned to climb up again, many of us look back on our actions when we fail and try to infer from them the cause of our endeavour gone astray. Unless, of course, we choose to make ourselves a part of the eighty-five percent that Thomas.A.Edison was referring to when he said, "Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they think; and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think."
Thinking of our failures, when proceeded with in the right spirit, can teach us more than any schooling can do. It is when we attempt to step into an unknown realm that we encounter our doubts and weaknesses. Wisdom lies in taking them in our stride and recalling them when faced by a situation kindred to the previous one. A mistake repeated is an opportunity forgone. A person who has made an error once and then erred in a similar manner again has lost a chance to learn from a mew experience. He is stuck at the first problem and has not moved ahead. But, it is not a fault on part of the 'error' that the person did not learn the first time. It is merely his disregard and refusal to accept his inattention that made him overlook the mistake.
This thoughtlessness, however, is not as harmful as getting depressed and giving up hope is. Negligent people learn late -- they learn when their attitude hits a dead end on the wrong side of the road. At that point they realise that they have got to look into all those mistakes, which they have been sitting on for all this while, over again. But, those who give up hope don't learn at all. They think that failure is the end of the world.
Life's journey, most definitely, does not finish at one mistake. A mistake simply means that one is better prepared to face the world of tomorrow today, than he was yesterday. Mistakes are always a window to polish one character. Successes are too, but even those who habitually scrutinize their faults may, easily, not deem it important to review a sojourn towards success with no thorny bushes and lurking wildcats on the way. For instance, I succeed with the brown ring test for nitrates in the chemistry laboratory everytime. Everybody else, too, follows the instructions to their best efforts. But, they don't succeed. In my knowledge, I did exactly what they did. but my knowledge is limited because everytime I succeeded, I never thought it essential to look back and try to find out what the trick was. If one day, I fail that test, I would no clue as to what amendments I must make in my procedure. Success, here, is not really teaching me as compulsively as failure would have.
That is why, a challenge is what one must put one's foot into. That is what all wise people have said all these years and so it will continue to be said. A challenge means more chances of mistakes and more mistakes mean more room to correct oneself. As opposed to a challenge, the easy way would not teach half as much. Moreover, a success achieved at the and of a challenge is more complete and advantageous. In this context, Robert Frost, in his poem 'The Road Not Taken', wrote, "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood and I / Took the one less traveled by / And that has made all the difference."
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