I believe that failure leads to success.

There is no doubt in my mind that one cannot succeed without failing.
People view failure as a step back or as a halt in progress, but I
cannot disagree more. Failure is actually a step forward or progress
towards your goal.

Throughout history brilliant minds have said things like “Never,
never, never give up.” Winston Churchill could not have been more on
the money. Never giving up greatly increases your chances of success.
Never giving up means you repeatedly fail and learn from your mistakes
and move on. When we accept failure as progress we get closer and
closer to our goal as we learn more and more how to succeed.

In other words, failure shows you how you cannot succeed, which, in
essence, shows you how you can succeed. It is like a multiple choice
question; when you fail you are actually eliminating possible answers
leaving the correct one for the choosing. Failure is what makes us
better. Without failure one does not improve. If one does not improve
then one cannot succeed.

I believe that failure goes hand in hand with success. This belief has
influenced my views on life and has greatly helped me to accomplish
some of my goals. Specifically, one of my goals as a child was to learn
to snap my fingers. For days, I attempted to snap my fingers and found
no success. If I had to guess, I would say I failed at least 500 times.
Every time I failed I made an improvement. It was those tiny tweaks
which led to a very happy moment in my life: my first successful snap.


On a more serious note, it was this belief which helped me achieve the
great relationship I now share with my father. I used to have a
terrible relationship with my father to say the least. I tried to fix
the situation hundreds of times and all of them seemed to fail. Now
that I look back I realize every time I failed to fix our differences I
actually got closer to a healthier relationship with my dad. It was
those tiny tweaks which got me closer to my goal. Every time I failed
to heal our relationship, it was actually progress towards my goal.
This trial and error process is what made me achieve my goal and what
ultimately made me succeed. Furthermore, without failing hundreds of
times I would have never made the changes which were vital to my
success. Without a doubt, failure led to my success.

It is these changes that one makes, the improvements from one trial to
another which leads to success. It is this underestimated and
undervalued trial and error process which helps us succeed. Regardless
of one’s interpretation of success, there is no doubt that one cannot
succeed without failing. Failure is one of the most fundamental
building blocks of success. And therefore, I conclude that failure
must lead to success. This I believe.