I don’t measure a man’s success by how high he climbs, but how high he bounces when he hits bottom.
– George Patton
Success Is Very Confusing
Success is perhaps one of the most elusive, confusing and sometimes a devastating experience. We all want to be very successful and happy in life. There is no doubt about that. Who doesn’t like to achieve the heights in our career, life, relationships and everything that really matters to us. It sure is a beautiful world to be a part of. Although we wrote about the 8 golden rules for goal setting to ensure success in life, we also realize the other side of the story.
Something very interesting about success is that it comes with a partner of its own and you guessed it right – Failure, in other words hitting rock bottom. It is as simple as this – when we want to go out of our way to achieve something in life, it entails risks. Nothing worthwhile has ever been achieved without these risks in life. It not only means that we can experience a great deal of success when we achieve our goals, but it also exposes us to getting hurt and feeling all those emotions. But we cannot let the fear of hurt overtake the enthusiasm of action cos the fear is not going to set us free – The Greatest Mistake that we will ever make in life is living in constant fear that we are going to make one.
By now, we all have realized that. We all have had our share of failures and irritating outcomes in life and all of them have sometimes put us down and sometimes brought out a brilliant spirit in us. If we read our success stories or failure stories, we see that quite commonly. All those big successes in life are the ones at least at some point of time who have failed big, who have failed to achieve their initial goals. I am sure all these success stories had an element of fear, but it did not deter them from action – the only thing that would set them free, a decision to consciously bounce back from this rock bottom.
What Happened And What They Did
But what it did to them is more important than what happened in their lives. How they used these failures and made them count, what they thought when they realized that their actions are being met by failure. Did they give up and throw their hands in the air and say that life was over? Or did they say, wait a minute, there is a bigger message here, there is a deeper meaning here, it is just telling me something is not right. It is just telling me that this rock bottom is indeed not the bottom, there is light somewhere.
The Bigger Picture
It is asking me to swallow my ego and look at the larger picture – the larger picture which can take me closer to what I want in life – not what I detest. It pushed them to focus on what they want rather than what they were focussing on and hence a success story was born. Of course it looks very easy from the outset. They all had strong psychologies, they had better resources, support of people around them and so on or that is what we would like to think sometimes so that it becomes easy to rationalize our inactions.
But truth be told, I am sure that they had their own share of problems. Some even wondered where their next meal was coming from. All of these so called success stories seem to make life very simplistic. Probably that is what Abdul Kalam meant when he said – Read failure stories, they will get you ideas .
We All Fall And Sometimes Real Bad
All of us fall down, sometimes right on our face. Sometimes we all are humiliated either by the society or the people around us and sometimes by our own expectations as well. But we have to do something stronger here. As Randy Pausch says – “You cannot change the cards you are dealt with but you can decide what to do with them”
Most times we do not have control over the outcomes but we sure do have control over what we do about them. And that is what George Patton means when he says success in not how high one climbs, but how well one bounces back when they hit rock bottom.
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Vinay…A big thank u from bottom my heart…I really mean it…
You might not know but you are really making a difference in someone’s life….. your article are 1000 % inspirational. My writing is not that good to tell you that you are really doing awesome job man…I am really short of words…
Mayuresh it is words like these that have me completely stumped and overwhelmed. Happiness is very much an understatement as to what I feel when I read this. It is an amazing feeling to know that our thoughts have helped you in a small way. But to read such a powerful compliment is more than a compliment for us. It means the world to us to be able to add value to your life and we will keep doing that.
Thanks so much for such great words Mayuresh. It really means a lot to me :)
Gosh! I so needed this. I was exactly looking for this quote and this very post. Thank you so much Vinay. Seems like our telepathy works pretty strong :) It’s hard to set a goal in life and even harder it becomes in some phases of life when you feel the goal is fading away. But staying strong, believe and always digging out the brighter side of the failure shows the way out and directs you to a clearer goal. Brilliantly put! :) Thank you so very much for this.
Can’t agree more, our worst failures always bring out the best in us :) Nice Post!
Love this quote! So very true! Bouncing back as you mentioned also depends on the support system one has! Great read Vinay :)
Absolutely true. I think the most prominent example in this respect is Dada, Sourav Ganguly.
I agree Vinay. That’s what resilience is all about. Isn’t it?
Absolutely true, we should also stay positive at the bottom for the bounce back to be smooth and strong.
True Alok. I guess we all hit rock bottom every now and then. Infact the more we try to do different things, the more we are bound to face the lows. But how we face them sure makes a lot of difference.
Well said Vinay..its definitely the standing up again which measures success.Reminds me of somewhat similar words Dumbledore said to Potter that we are simply our choices….
wise words indeed:):)
Thank you Kokila. I think I wrote a post on a similar topic from Harry Potter, something in the lines of what we create ourselves to become. Like you said, we sure are nothing but our choices and how we respond to them. True buildings of a character.