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Arora, Kanav
Instructor Andreea Corona
11/06/2022

Fear of Failure
Winston Churchill once said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to

continue that counts.” Humans in general have different fears. Children are often afraid of the

dark, imagining monsters coming out of nowhere, vampires sucking blood and fearing many

such ghostly creatures that we heard of, in our grandmother’s stories. As time moves on, these

fears become bigger and worldlier.

“Fear of Failure” seems to be the monster, lot of us keep fretting about. I often wonder, is

there anyone in this world, who has never failed? Whether it is one of the most successful

people, Steve Jobs who was forced to resign from Apple- his own company or a high school kid

whose grades slipped in formative years, everyone has experienced failure, first-hand.

Even though it is known that failure in life is inevitable, it is often forgotten that many a times it

is irrational, and it is one of the strongest forces that holds people back from following their

dreams. People all over the world are often held back by this fear of failing and are therefore not

able climb the ladder of success they want to.

Nicky Gumbel, a well renowned English Anglican priest and author, had rightly said,

“Don't be afraid of pressure. Pressure is what transforms a lump of coal into a diamond.” Yes,

while it is true that pressure can often play a vital role in people's success, it can also often take a

negative turn and become an unwanted burden that adversely affects one's mental wellbeing.

Pressure and fear are emotions that are usually caused by the environment around. For example,

in ancient times, India had a Gurukula system of education, in which anyone who wished to

study went to a Guru’s (teacher’s) house and requested to be taught. All learning was closely
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linked to nature and to life and not confined to memorizing information. This kind of education

system helped students live a life with much less pressure and stress and focus more on the

process of learning than the outcome.

Today, the modern education system is more inclined towards memorization and takes long

study hours leaving little time for recreational activities and socialization. Students do not get

enough opportunities to unveil their creative side. To add to this, parental pressure of performing

well amidst fierce competition and limited opportunities especially in developing nations, makes

it very tough for students to remain un-impacted by peer pressure. In a constant rat race to score

and perform better, students often become stressed out and unhappy. Many a times children who

fail to meet up the expectations, often face harsh criticism which leads them to be suppressed by

thoughts of self-doubt and insecurity which further adds to their fear of failure.

Like all other students, I also occasionally succumb to the fear of failure. I still

remember the anxiety I used to feel just before the exams, all thanks to our examination system

in India, where we try to get in all the information in one go and then vomit out whatever comes

to our mind, in the examination paper. I learnt to adapt to this methodology, however some

students who are more vulnerable are crippled by this pressure and face mental health issues

and increased levels of stress, sometimes also leading to drastic outcomes like suicide and mental

disorders. And with the continuous increase in competition, the number of students who are

negatively affected by this are proliferating year by year. Most people fear failure, but failure

does not prevent success. Actually, failure can lead to success as long we learn from it. Failure

is one of the keys to success because it teaches us more. Thomas Edison, maybe the greatest

inventor of the modern era, said the following while on his journey to create the long-lasting

electric light bulb, “I’ve not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
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In her Ted Talk, “What Fear Can Teach Us?” Karen Thompson Walker

illustrates how fear is an amazing actor our imagination that can be used to our advantage rather

than disadvantage. Walker points out how everyone knows how it feels to be afraid but no one

spends enough time to analyse what our fears truly mean as we are brought up to think about our

fears as weaknesses which need to be discarded. Walker further reports a study which claims how

humans are hardwired to be optimists which leads them to think offer as a danger which needs to

be conquered or fought rather than a story in our heads. Walker then asks the audience to think of

fear from a new and fresh perspective as a story, which makes one think about their future , rather

than just a danger. To elaborate, she states a study which examines successful entrepreneurs who

share a habit called- ‘Productive Paranoia’-which means that these guys study their fears closely

and examine it rather than dismissing them and further translate it into preparation and action so

that they are ready if their worst fears came true. This study by walker is a perfect example of how

it is critical to face our fear of failure head on and not run away from the outcome. If one just learns

how to read their fears in the right way , their fear can change from a danger to an amazing gift of

their imaginations and a way of glimpsing what might be the future when there is still time to

influence how that future will play out.

For people to use their fears , it is vital that people understand that it okay

to have fears. As writer Jessica Bennett details in her article, “On Campus, Failure Is on the

Syllabus,” most colleges in the world are now taking steps and initiatives to destigmatize failure

and the fear around it. Bennet gives the example Smith College and how just as students start

college, during orientation, they are shown multiple examples of different people who have
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failed many times and that also in innumerable ways: examples of seniors failing in classes,

professors getting dropped from college, poets getting rejected multiple times etc.

The question that arises is why? Why are students who have just joined college shown

such examples of failures? The purpose is not to show students the examples of people who have

failed; but to make them understand as to how these people have bounced back, despite facing

many failures. These are clear examples of how everyone needs to go through their share of

struggles and suffer some setbacks in life. At times which may appear as if, everything is

withering away, however it is never the end of the road. Our failures are meant to get the best out

of us and not demotivate us. As they say, when life gives you lemons, make some lemonades.

In Bennett’s article, she also elaborates on a conversation she has with Rachel Simmons, a

leadership development specialist in Smith’s Wurtele Center. Simmons states, “What we’re

trying to teach is that failure is not a bug of learning, it’s the feature.” In her conversation,

Simmons also explains why it is vital that these programs are not locked out of the learning

experience as for many of our students — those who have had to be almost perfect to get

accepted into a school like Smith — failure can be an unfamiliar experience. So, when it

happens, it can be crippling, and many students cannot cope with it.

Now colleges around the world are trying to instill in students a concept of: ‘It’s OK to

fail at times.’ There are many active programs to drive this like: Success-Failure Project at

Harvard, the Princeton Perspective Project and Penn Faces at the University of Pennsylvania.

This is helping students to understand that stumbles are inevitable and a valuable part of growing

up.

I see failure as life’s greatest teacher, which pushes us to keep striving to be better. No

one in this world is perfect, sometimes most trained pilots have crashed, and under the glare of
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competition professional golfers miss seeing the pin. Even the most successful people like Oprah

Winfrey, Walt Disney, J.K. Rowling, and Virat Kohli faced many failures before making it big.

Therefore, as students it is very important to understand that failure is not the opposite of

success, it’s a part of it. The essay gives us multiple examples of how we can use failure to our

advantage and how it is never too late to dust off our failure and make a comeback in life.

As rightly said by Swami Vivekananda "Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is achieved".
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Word Count:1475

Works Cited:

Bennett, Jessica. On Campus, Failure Is on the Syllabus.

Thompson, Karen. Fear of failure :
Walkerhttp://www.ted.com/talks/karen_thompson_walker_what_fear_can_teach_us

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/desires-of-a-modern-indian/the-importance-of-the-
gurukul-system-and-why-indian-education-needs-it/