Failure Not Fatal

Turning success into failure does not need special talent. Just resting on your laurels, which, in turn, entails taking success for granted, will do the trick for most people. This brings to mind Winston Churchill’s memorable quote: success is not final. Nor is failure fatal for that matter — it’s the courage to continue that counts.

The late Prime Minister of UK also defined success as “going from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm”. During his early stint as a war correspondent, Churchill was captured and imprisoned but he escaped to take part in the relief of Ladysmith.

Similarly, after making a promising start in politics, Churchill had to face the ignominy of being sacked as first secretary of admiralty for adisastrous campaign he’d proposed in the battle of Gallipoli. Thereafter, he was forced to remain in political wilderness for 10 years.

Alesser soul might have thrown in the towel at this stage; not Churchill. Just two years later, in a remarkable display of resilience, he became Prime Minister. For all his popularity as a war leader, however, Churchill lost the elections that followed World War II! When his wife consoled him by calling the debacle a blessing in disguise, Churchill testily replied that the blessing was “very well disguised” indeed.

Yet, he was back again as Prime Minister in 1951, refurbishing his credentials as a ‘comeback champion’. Not even a stroke that he’d suffered two years earlier could prevent his triumphal return to public life. He finally resigned from politics in 1955; but by then, he had already won the Nobel Prize for Literature.