FAILING FORWARD

"Whatever you do in life, never disappoint yourself" - Alex Enakhifo

Everyone desires to "pass" as it were every test. In school when every student is given an assignment or homework, it's the expectation of everyone; parents and even the student himself that he passes it. So, frantically or meticulously every student goes into either a frenzy or concentration mood to try to unravel the mysteries behind such assignments. All in a bid to, "PASS" the test.

It's very elating to go through your assignments and see "red check marks" signifying "good" in examination sheets, and very depressing having an "X", however the number of "Xs" determines how happy a student will be or not. It shows how intelligently, how averagely or how poorly a child performs. Well, that's in the formal educational system. What about the "educational system of life"? I bet you things, happen differently, and passing or failing is recorded differently.

Years ago, I had a discussion with my uncle, in the end I said, "I won't disappoint you sir", to which paused, and replied. "No, son, not me. Don't disappoint yourself" he continued. "You see, everyone is so quick to expect every other person to be this or that, and rarely don't bother about what the individual in question really wants to be. That's why most parents would force their children to study courses, or get married to someone against the child's wish resulting in frustrated adults and destinies today. Son, you have your own dream, you can disappoint me, but never disappoint yourself." He added, "I will live my life, and you'll live yours, don't please anyone and displease yourself"
After, he finished talking to me, though his words were tender and soft, but it hit me so hard, I'm still dazed years later by his advice. In life you'll hear repeatedly statements like;
"I was just testing, and you failed it" and so on. Someone said this about one of my friends recently, "Tell him, a simple test I set for him he couldn't even pass it; he failed it woefully" to which my friend, smiled and replied, "I have been failing many tests for a long time, and on this matter I'll will still fail more; as long as you're the one setting it."

The truth is, you do not have any business being bothered about how many tests you fail I tests set by other people. Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison and a host of other remarkable gurus in history were all deemed to have failed. As a matter of fact, Edison failed a particular test 10,000 times in a row. Life itself and it's events grade us differently, anybody can grade and fail you when you fail to conform to their preconceived or expected idea. Important thing is are you trying not to disappoint yourself or someone else? Think about it.