“Learning by experience” is just another name for “failing”. People who fail make up a lot of excuses. They (people who fail) spew forth meaningless platitudes, as if failing is the greatest thing that ever happened to them. The most common is along the lines of “failure is a lesson you cannot learn in school” or somesuch.
They (people who fail) point out that successful people also failed. For example, Steve Jobs, who played up his early failures in his memorable Stanford commencement address. They (people who fail) like to remind us that Thomas Edison used to “fail” thousands of times before getting the first lightbulb to work. They (people who fail) talk about Bill Gates dropping out of college as proof that he was once a “failure”.
To all these, I say: what bullshit.
Let me deconstruct all the examples to show how ridiculous they are.
First, Steve Jobs “failing” and you failing are not the same. In mid 1980s, Steve Jobs was relieved from his management duties by the Apple board of directors, because Jobs did not get along with Apple CEO John Sculley. Jobs remained as an Apple director, before he left and started NeXT. At the time, Steve Jobs already established his street cred and made his name as one of the genius entrepreneurs in the Valley. His removal from Apple management, as of many deposed company founders, came with a generous compensation. Hardly a “failure” if you ask me.
The losers I meet everyday who complain about how they got cheated in business, got scammed by salesmen, and got robbed by business partners, are just plain stupid. You are a failure and you are no Steve Jobs, so stop comparing.
Second, those who mentioned Edison’s trying out his lightbulbs as example of failing many times before succeeding, is just plain dumb. What do you expect, plugging a horseshoe into a battery and BAM, lightbulb? Of course he tried many times before it worked. Everything, from software to microchips to a new set of tires, have to be tried several times before they work. Calling Edison’s many attempts a “failure” is like calling me a failure because when I go to a shoestore I try out many pairs of shoes before I buy a pair of shoes that fits. Trying out things is not “failure” – everyone does it.
Third, about Bill Gates: please STFU because you don’t know what you are talking about. He dropped out of Harvard College because he made money writing software. He is a math genius: he authored, while an undergraduate, a paper on the Pancake Problem which explains an algorithm that remains the most efficient pancake sorting algorithms known today. Even if Microsoft failed, Gates would not have any problem resuming his studies because he’s a brilliant student. Also, Gates’s parents are rich, so his dropping out of Harvard College to start Microsoft is not as risky as some people might believe. And definitely not a failure.
I hate failure. I am hard on myself if I fail. I do not console myself with sweet talks about “you always pass failure on the way to success”. No, I don’t buy that crap about failing graciously, Berani Gagal or whatever the latest pop-psychology baloney. I hate to fail. If I fail, I am a failure. End of story.
“But Bal,” some of you might say, “if you don’t fail, how are you going to learn all the precious lessons about failure?”. There are many ways I learn about failure. First, by Google. Google knows everything. Second, by looking at my friends who failed. How hard is it not to repeat their mistakes? Third, I learn about failure by NOT BEING ONE. People who fail, if you think about it, are asking for it.
Whatever I say now, sooner or later I will fail. I will be a failure at some point. You all will laugh at me. But I will not say to myself “you know what, it’s good that you fail now, so you learnt all these lessons you could never learn elsewhere.” No, but I will rebuke myself: “You useless loser. Why do you fail? You should be ashamed of yourself.” No motivational backpat. And I will pick up from there, vowing not to fail again.
I want to do things right from the first time. Better to be slow and succeed, than to be hasty and fail. Failure sucks.
Posted by Suhaimi.
Filed under Business & Management, Culture, Finance & Investment, Personal
Posted on Wed, 08 April 2009 at 4:28 pm
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couldn’t agree even an inch more…
08 Apr 09 at 5:13 pm #Habislah Billi Lim. Makin botak la kepala dia. Macam mana dia nak buat tocang? :-s
08 Apr 09 at 9:02 pm #tahniah… aku rasa ko kena apply menulis kat nst atau thestar la..
09 Apr 09 at 2:02 am #Whoa, that is a little harsh.
The thing is Bal, one of the reasons that we have all these “pop-psychology baloney” is that a lot of people are not as motivated. Sadly, kicking people when they are down is a part of many cultures. Hence, for many it is not as easy to start over. These books can actually help.
Doing things right at the first time, who doesn’t want that? But even with perfect planning, we do make mistakes. But people have different ways of pushing themselves back. You don’t have to punish yourself, you can still give youself a motivational backpat and then vowing never to fail again.
Then again, whatever works for you I guess.. =)
p/s the word ‘failure’ is being used loosely. I think some should be referred to as mistakes, not failures.
09 Apr 09 at 3:15 pm #‘failure’ give more impact than ‘mistake’. people are afraid of ‘failure’ but don’t really bother about their ‘mistake’.
09 Apr 09 at 6:12 pm #1)Kalau Bill Gates drop out from uni sebab dia tak pandai, takkan dia dapat masuk Harvard at first. Unless you have visions of grandeur where you want to built a multi-billion dollar company, stay in school. Don’t quit college simply because “Bill Gates pun uni dropped out jugak”.
2)Kalau Microsoft failed, Bill Gates takkan resume study, although dia pernah bagitau ayah dia yg one day dia akan resume study utk dapatkan degree dia (dah dapt pun!). He will just start a new business. Genuine entrepreneurs, jiwanya mmg camtu. Real entrepreneurs bukan buat business sebab ‘nak try’. Kalau jadi, good. Kalau tak jadi sebab fail or mistake (whatever), takpe. I’ll resume back kerja makan gaji or sambung study. NO WAY! Real entrepreneurs, they permanently close the door of giving up. Kalau nak kerja makan gaji, kerja betul2 and climb the corporate ladder. Kalau nak buat business, buat betul2 sampai jadi principle in your industry. Jangan nak mengada-ngada. It’s whether all out or don’t do it at all.
3) Dalam hadis dah cakap, “Tidak ada kebijaksanaan melebihi perancangan yang baik”. But, no matter what, you will fail at some points in life. Tapi kalau fail, cari salah sendiri dulu instead of blaming others. Perbaiki kelemahan diri dahulu instead of simply pasrah by saying,”dah nasib. nak buat camne…”. Poor them. They blame Allah for their own mistakes.
4)I hate people who are afraid of failure because they just want to show that they are smart. What would they say to the late Mary Kay Ash when she decided to go forward with Mary Kay Cosmetics-despite her trusted accountant telling her that it would be impossible and ultimately leave her penniless? Talking on the point of being smart, she definitely didn’t make a smart decision. At that moment, her re-married husband just died. She only had a few thousand dollars and one helper, her son. But in 1996, the company’s retail sales level hit the 2 billion dollar mark!
For these type of people, if you are out there, read this blog. I hope this blog will benefit you in this world and the hereafter. But if you haven’t change, please don’t get near me. I will pray for you to change but I don’t want to get to know you. Please don’t waste my time.
5)I like to be fast and succeed. If not, slow and succeed is ok. Why should I be tembel when insyaAllah, I can do it fast and succeed?
10 Apr 09 at 4:41 am #1) Agree. I’m sick of people who say that formal education is not useful because Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison and Michael Dell are college dropouts.
2) My point was that Bill Gates dropping out was not a risky decision, because he has plenty of backup plans (rich parents, ability to resume study). People can pursue their dreams with more focus if they know there is a safety net. His situation is different from that of Steve Jobs, who dropped out simply because he didn’t like going to college, and later decided to take calligraphy classes at Reed College. He did not have the safety net that Bill Gates had.
3) If you fail, then it’s not “perfect planning” as Tg said. Planning is to anticipate all contingencies, whether it’s within your control or not (e.g. rain).
4) Being afraid of failure is being smart.
5) I disagree. I’d rather be slow and successful. Fast successes tend to be fleeting (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, dotcom / web 2.0 companies)
10 Apr 09 at 7:07 am #4) Agree. Being afraid of failure, that is normal and honest. I like this type of people because they are honest and smart. But getting cocky by saying, “Haha…I am smart. That’s why I don’t fail like you!” Haha..org macam ni boleh balik kampung! Shooh! Shooh! jauh2 from me. Biasanya org macam ni, first dia syok sendiri yg dia tu smart and usually they will laugh at the late Mary Kay Ash when she just started her business. Tapi bila Mary dah achieve that 2 billion mark, dia akan pergi menyorok dalam tandas (agaknya la. mungkin gi menyorok dalam hutan gak) sebab malu yg teramat. At that moment, Mary is the smarter person.
5) hmmm…orait. I partially agree with your disagreeness. Hehe…maybe for me, 5 years is fast and 10 years is slow. But if Bal says 15 years is fast…oh my…doctors? any doctor visiting this blog? If yes, please jab this guy some permissible stimulant to ‘electrify’ him. Bill it to our company. kekeke….
10 Apr 09 at 8:31 am #like i said, failure is just a result that u need to try again. its not so bad..mula2 life would seem bleak, but nothing is static…people move on..and that is success…rising back up after u have fallen…there is no such thing as faiure. its just a result. plus bal, u needn’t make it such a big deal. relaklah k..
pushing yourself coz ur afraid of failure also is not healthy. maybe thats why ur always cranky and moody!:P
ciao!
14 Apr 09 at 11:25 am #Inas,
14 Apr 09 at 1:25 pm #If you keep justifying your failure like that, you’ll never go anywhere. Please trust me on this.
[...] 8. Street smart people piss me off when they are proud of the fact that they are not formally educated. And then they point out that Bill Gates and Steve Jobs did not finish college. For a rebuttal of this, read my earlier entry Learning by Experience vs. Doing it Right the First Time. [...]
05 Jun 09 at 11:04 am #