Failure is Not Fatal

I follow a lot of other blogs and one is written by another school counselor who works here in Ohio.  I read his post and immediately knew that I wanted all of you to benefit from his words.  He generously gave me permission to repost his thoughts about why failure is not fatal and I hope you will appreciate his insight as much as I did.

I couldn't help but laugh as I read the news tonight and the critics are jumping all over the weathermen and politicians in upstate New York. As you may know, everyone was predicting the snowstorm of "historic significance" all along the East Coast last night and today. The Governor, the mayor and anyone else who had any authority was making news statements telling the people to stay home, don't travel and don't go to school. The Governor authorized the closing of the transportation industry and warned anyone if they were out on the street, they would be arrested. According to all sources, they were getting two feet of snow with severe winds. Well as you are aware, New York city did not get the big snow storm that was called for and today everyone is apologizing and making excuses. The people of New York want to know how something like this could happen, especially in this day and age with all the technology we have available to us today.

As I read all this chit chat, I couldn't help but think... I guess the weather people failed us this time. This is one time that the people should be glad they got it wrong. I also thought that I am glad that the meteorologist don't just feel defeated and quit. What I have read is that they are going to go back and analyze their models and see what went wrong. I think that is a great idea and one we can all learn from.

See, there is nothing wrong with failure. If I can quote Winston Churchill "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts". We all make mistakes throughout our life, however, it is what we do with those mistakes that counts. We should always try to learn from our mistakes and then continue on. If we learn from our mistakes, we can become better people and better students. Did you know that Henry Ford failed in previous business efforts five times before he finally founded the successful Ford Motor Company. Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because he "lacked imagination and had no good ideas". He started several other business that ended in bankruptcy until he finally hit it with Disney Land. Albert Einstein did not speak until he was four and did not read until he was seven, causing his parents and teachers to think he was mentally handicapped, slow and anti-social. Thomas Edison is quoted as saying "I have not failed. I just found 10,000 ways that wont work".

That is my hope for each and everyone of you. I hope that no matter what you work at in life, you will realize that failure is a part of life. It is said, if you never fail, you never have tried. You will fail, but you need to understand that you can learn from your failures. Please get back in the game and don't let it bother you. Remember all the great people throughout our history that have failed, and then think, maybe someday everyone may be quoting you and recognizing your great accomplishments. I have faith in all of you, and as always, remember... you were created for something great! I believe you truly were.

Thank you Mr. Fisher for you words - I whole heartedly agree - my students were destined for greatness and can achieve anything as long as you never give up!