One story that is inevitably told in just about every lecture on motivation is the one about Jesus falling down three times while carrying the cross to Calvary. And the lecturer will inevitably say that the falling down was not important but his getting up three times to carry on was. I had always wondered at this story as being a bit off for Jesus went to get crucified. So, getting up three times was taking him to get crucified? What kind of silver lining was that? Had he decided that it was better that he died?
Success and failure do not mean perfection and imperfection respectively. The perfect, successful life is impossible as is the imperfect failures of life. In my not so humble opinion, it is all about learning to treat failures as experiences rather than as something to avoid or be ashamed of. And, I suspect that is what Conrad who suggested this topic had in mind for the weekly Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where five of us write on the same topic. The four other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order, Ashok, gaelikaa, Maxi, and Shackman. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. Since some of them may post late, or not at all this week, do give some allowance for that too!
So, I would rather use Thomas Alva Edison’s famous quote “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” as an inspirational example of how each failure is a silver lining for success and persistence is the formula to get there.