31: A Motive For Temporary Failures

If I were hiring you for a position requiring leadership, creativity, or innovation or really anything beyond just menial work, I would ask you if you’ve ever encountered temporary failure while attempting anything significant. If your answer was, “No”, I would not hire you. If you haven’t dealt with a decent failure, then you haven’t tried much, or at least not much that required enough of you. Thus for any aspiring person, trying big enough objectives which bring you temporary failures is a desirable motive. In many sporting events for kids these days, everyone gets a “participation award” where there are no winners or losers. Few people encounter any real failure in the traditional education system and a majority of modest jobs offer fair compensation for work which has little to no risk. This breeds mediocrity and a stable working class. If you desire anything more you want to be trying things you can’t easily achieve and encountering temporary failures. Not absolute failures. Not high risk and damaging failures. But endeavors where you must face legitimate obstacles you must overcome. Where you may need to redirect and sometimes even start over completely in order to succeed. This is what grows intelligence, resilience, and wisdom.