The sense of failure filled him with an odd energy -- he wasn't going to sit in a melancholy stupor and watch the snow come sifting down. For after all he had done what he wanted to do, it could not have been different, his only error was to have dreamed the wrong dream. And Martin embraced his failure, threw himself into the idea of failure as into a new and soaring creation. ...
For there could be no half-measures, in failure as in success. - Martin Dressler, The Tale of An American Dreamer.
Fridays, I celebrate the role of failure in leading to success. By accident, or persistence, I came across this passage today in this, one of my favorite books.
This passage, clear and crisp, is a portrayal of that moment when a grand idea...comes crashing down. Maybe it's time has gone. Maybe the wrong dream was dreamt. Was it wrong at the time of its dreaming? Maybe it's just the persistant pattern of life: creation, maintenance, destruction...creation, maintenance, destruction...
More often, it's another step forward...of learning, of growing...as long as we refuse to sit in a melancholy stupor and watch the snow come sifting down.
As one leader was quoted, the only failure is in not getting back up when you've been knocked down. That would be a loss. All that knowledge now remaining unused, unshared with others....a waste.
Failure's a part of life. Get over it....(laughing). Yes, to both. It's tough, though. No matter how well I understand that phrase, how often I celebrate Failures on Friday...failure is still unpleasant. And that may be its power: to draw our attention to that which we need to learn. It holds our face in its hand like you do with a puppy, to get our attention, kindly if we allow it, and show us what we need to learn. We did a lot right. Now we need to grow. We can't stay here...And we need move forward with no half-measures.
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