Learning from Failure

   When failure knocks you down,will you have the guts to get up and get going? Or will you give up? Achieving sucess can be difficult.At times,distractions, delays and defeats discourage everyone. Giving up seems better than going on.But the principle of rising after each fall to try again applies to all struggles.

   History informs us that stories of success are also stories of great failures. Take the young Winston Churchill.He did not exhibit signs of greatness as a child.He hated mathematics and,at Ascot School,he had to be frequently caned by the principal.When he changed his school to Bringhton,his reputation as a dunce followed him.The story goes that the ladies running the school were so relieved when Churchill left and they declared a half-holiday.At Harrow, he failed the entrance examination.He also failed the entrance test to Sandhurst Military College twice and scraped through on the third attempt.He was undeterred by these failures and went on to become the greatest Prime Minister England ever had.

  At school, Albert Einstein was so dull that he was called "Dull Albert".His teacher described him as "mentally slow,unsociable and adrift forever in his foolish dreams".He did not even pass the entrance examination to get into Zurich Polytechnic School.Only in the fourth attempt did he make the grade.Today Einstein is regarded as the architect of the Nuclear Age.

  Charles Darwin,father of the Theory of Evolution, was voted the "dullest boy of the year".He had to give up a medical career and his father told him,"You care for nothing but shooting,dogs and rat catching."In his autobiography,Darwin wrote."I was considered by all my masters and by my father,a very ordinary boy,rather below the common standard in intellect."And yet every student knows about Darwin today.

  The greatest novelist of the 19th Century, Sir Walter Scott,was given the title of "King of blockheads"and was made to wear a dunce cap for a whole month.Yet this man rose up in life to write the classic, Ivanhoe.His poems are a class apart.

  Have you heard of Lord Keynes? When at school he failed so many times in one subject that the principal had to send for his parents.And what subject did he fail in? Economics.Virtually every year in college,he got the lowest marks in economics.Yet he is now considered as the father of modern economic theories.

  These men were like any other student.The only difference was that every time they failed,they bounced back.This is called failing forward,rather than backward.You learn and move forward.Ask yourself after every failure:what did I learn from this experience?Learn from you failure and keep going.

   Some things take a lot of time.Staying on course can keep you focused on what you need to do.Like Winston Churchill,Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin,Walter Scott and Lord Keynes,you may have to persevere in the face of almost inevitable defeat.You must remember that your goals should be moral and reasonable.But if your goals are both then stay on course.Don't quit.A second effort or a third or a fourth pays off.


当你遭遇失败时，你有没有勇气站起来继续向前？还是就此放弃了？通往成功的道路总是坎坷曲折的，在这期间常常会伴随着外界的干扰、延迟和失败，所有的人都会觉得失望和沮丧。放弃看上去比坚持下去容易多了。但是，要摆脱这个困境，唯一适用的原则就是：从每一次的跌倒中站起来，再做一次尝试。

历史告诉我们，巨大成功的背后都有着无数的失败。就拿年轻时候的温斯顿·丘吉尔来说吧。他小的时候，并没有显示出他将成为伟人的任何征兆。他讨厌数学，而且在爱斯科特学校时，他常常被校长用藤条鞭打惩罚。当他转校到布赖顿时，他作为劣等生的名声也跟他一起到了那里。据说，当丘吉尔离开这所学校时，掌管学校的女士们宣布放半天假以示庆祝。在哈罗，他没能通过入学考试。他两次都没能通过桑德霍斯特（英国陆军官校所在地）军事学院的入学考试，第三次才极为勉强地被接受。但他从来没有被这些失败所打倒，继续向前，并成为了英格兰历史上最杰出的首相。

埃尔伯特·爱因斯坦在学校读书的时候，是个愚钝的学生，别人都给他取了个“蠢埃尔伯特”的外号。他的老师这样形容他：“思维迟钝，性格孤僻，总是沉迷于自己愚蠢的幻想中。”他甚至没有通过苏黎世工艺学校的入学考试。他在第四次补考之后才拿到自己的学位。今天，爱因斯坦被尊称为原子时代的奠基人。

进化论的创始人查尔斯·达尔文曾被评为“年度最笨男孩”。他不得不放弃了做医生的职业。他的父亲对他说：“除了打猎、遛狗、捉老鼠之外，你简直一无是处！”在他的自传中，他这样写道：“所有的老师和我的父亲都认为我只是个很平庸的男孩，智商比一般人都低。”然而，现在所有学生都知道达尔文和他的理论。

19世纪最伟大的小说家之一，沃尔特·斯科特先生，曾被人称为“傻子之王”，并被戴上了象征劣等生的帽子，整整戴了一个月。就是这个人，从失败中爬了起来，写下了世纪经典小说《艾文荷》。他的诗歌在诗坛也是独树一帜。

你有没有听说过大师凯恩斯？在学生时代，他曾经有一门学科总是不能及格，以致校长不得不把他的家长请来。知道他不及格的是哪一门吗？是经济学。在大学的每一年，他的经济学分数都是最低的。现在，他被人们认作是现代经济学理论之父。

这些人跟所有其他学生一样，惟一的不同是：每次他们遇到失败挫折的时候，他们都会愈挫愈勇，再接再厉。这就叫做前进性的失败，而不是后退性的。你通过学习而向前进，经历每次失败后，都要问自己：从这次失败中我学到了什么？从你的失败中获取教训，继续前进。

有些事情需要花很多的时间。保持在正确的方向可以让你更清楚地知道你需要做些什么。就像温斯顿·丘吉尔、埃尔伯特·爱因斯坦、查尔斯·达尔文、沃尔特·斯科特和大师凯恩斯一样，你必须在面对几乎不可避免的失败时，坚定自己的立场。你必须记住：你的目标应该是合乎道德而且合乎情理的，如果你的目标符合了这两个要求，那么就在正确的方向上。不要放弃！也许第二次、第三次或第四次的努力就能为你敲开成功的大门。