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The beauty of life is that it is a unique mix of contraries like happiness and sorrow, struggle and comfort and success and failure, etc. It is the amalgam of success and failure that imparts distinctive touch to human life. If success makes life a pleasing experience, failure makes it look like a battle-field where we have to constantly fight sometimes with our own emotions and sometimes with the external factors like society and people. It directly leads to the fact that there can't be a single human being who doesn't face the ups and downs of life.
There is no denying the fact that one can't achieve success without tasting failure at one point or other in his life. In other words, the road to success goes through the door of failure. Thus failure is the stepping stone towards suceess. Moreover, failure is nothing more than a state of mind. If the result of some task does not turn out to be as per our expectations, we treat it as a kind of failure. We mustn't forget that failure is nothing more than a life lesson and failure is a phase of life that must empower us rather than weaken us. It should motivate us to start doing something all over agin with a renewed enthusiasm.
It is a gross fallacy to equate failure with defeat. Both failure and defeat are entirely different concepts. Failure is a transitory but defeat is permanent. If you get disheartened by failures of life to such an extent that you end up losing all hope, then you seem to have accepted defeat, whereas failure in itself is merely a passing phase of life. If you fail to get the desired results once, it is not a big deal at all. Even if a student appearing in some competitive exam fails to crack it once or a number of times, the world doesn't end for him. Failure should motivate us to start again from the scratch and deliver the best with all our might.
Let me prove my point by means of an example from my own life. After completing my graduation from Himachal Pradesh University Shimla, I decided to go in for Masters in English Literature as it was at that time thought to be one of the most lucrative courses of higher studies. Though I was not poor in studies but my educational background was the biggest hurdle in my way of pursuing M.A. in English. I didn't have the privilege of having had my schooling from some English medium school and this fact led to a number of problems for me later on.
By the grace of God, I succeeded in getting admission in M.A. English despite the fact the number of seats were limited. I started attending classes but on the very first day I realized that the path was not at all going to be easy for me.
One had to pass 4 semesters with each semester having four papers and the duration of the degree was 2 years. When I appeared in the term-end examinations of the first semester, I was happy with the way I wrote the answers in the exams. But the bolt from the blue came when the result came out.
Though I had passed all the courses, I had scored, if my memory does go wrong, about 40 percent marks and that was way below my expectations and far below what my parents had expected from me. I still remember the day when I came to know about my result. That day I was eagerly waiting for the result and with my class-mates, I chatted a lot heartily for about 2 or 3 hours before we came to know about the result. All my class-mates had scored better than me and I felt shattered emotionally. The sky seemed to have fallen all over me all of a sudden because the result was quite contrary to what I had expected. Most of my class-mates and some whom I considered inferior to me had scored far better marks than I had scored.
My heart was quite heavy with sadness and grief though before my friends I kept up the brave face. The moment I reached my home and saw my parents, I just couldn't stand it any more and burst out weeping. Perhaps my parents understood the problem and as they had belief in my potential, they tried to placate me with inspiring words, but I was too sad to be motivated by their inspirational words. I still remember that I couldn't recover from this state of shock for many days. But as days went by, I gradually started to gain confidence and all thanks to God that I once again became confident enough to resume my studies. I didn't lose heart and instead of giving up, I decided to deliver my best shot with all my might. Hence I devoted myself wholeheartedly into studies, though I knew it was an uphill task for me as my educational background was the biggest hurdle in my scoring good marks.
I started attending coaching classes in English to improve my command over this language. I studied a lot and burnt the midnight oil. Now it was time for me to appear in the second semester exam. I was satisfied with my performance in the examination and within three months the result was out. This time too, my result was not upto my expectations and I ended up scoring merely 47 percent marks that was no doubt better than last time but far from what I had hoped to score.
By now I had come to understand that there is no substitute to hard work and if I had to taste success, then I would have to study all the more hard so that I could score above 55 percent in the third semester. I kept 55 percent as the target for me in the third semester examination. Side by side the coaching classes were going on and my efforts were being appreciated by my tutor in the coaching center. Within the next six months, I had to face the same situation of dealing with the declaration of the result. Now I missed my target by the hair's breadth and ended up scoring 54 percent.
Now M.A. in English was getting on my nerves but I was not ready to accept defeat, though I had met with failure a number of times. My consolidated percentage in the three semesters was about 46 percent and that was not at all satisfactory. It was the last semester and after the term of 2 year was to come to an end, I had the chance of taking improvements that means I could appear in those papers again in which I had not been able to get good marks.
I persisted in my consistent studies and committed hard work. I sat for the 4th semester exam and at the same time, I took four papers for improvement. Now it was a do and die situation for me. I continued to study hard and appeared once again in the exams with full confidence. Within three months, the result got declared and I still remember that I went with my father to get my result card. When I got my result card in my hands, I couldn't believe for a while that it was my result. I had scored above 63 percent in the fourth semester and over 60 percent in the papers that I had taken for improvement. My total aggregate of Master in English had gone to 54 percent. Now I had done something that had looked almost impossible to me a few months back. I took a few more papers next time and easily went above 60 percent as far as my total percentage of M.A. was concerned.
Thereafter I continued with higher studies and applied for M.Phil that had only 10 seats in all. By virtue of my percentage in M.A. I got admission in M.Phil.
I had personally experienced myself that hard work never goes in vain. If you don't submit before the failures and disappointments of life and if you have the will and determination to achieve success, nothing can come in your way. Failures are merely obstacles in the way of success and we shouldn't lose heart while we move on the path to our goal. Frustrations of life are like life lessons that should inspire us to move ahead rather than demotivate us to surrender. Had I accepted defeat after facing repeated failures during my pursuing Masters in English, I could never have been able to pursue higher education. Maybe I could still have done something else if I had not persisted in my efforts to score better, but the point is that I didn't want to accept defeat even when I had to face failures time and again. And it was only by virtue of my never-say-die spirit that I could turn the tables around.
It is not merely an episode of life but a life lesson for me. Even now when I come face to face with frustrations and failures of life, I look back and derive inspiration from what I had managed to achieve by dint of committed hard work. Now I know for sure that failure is the stepping stone to success. Therefore believe in yourself and 'Never let failure defeat you'.
