Yes I mean it. It’s no misprint: Failure could be a blessing in disguise - only we have to see it as such and be prepared to take the appropriate lessons from the experience. How better could I illustrate this fact other than as a first hand witness case!
During 1984 I was on a very important mission: I was engaged in my first job search exercise. My purpose was to find a company that could train me as an apprentice electrician. Already I was armed with an exceptional matric pass (not many people could beat my first class symbols in Maths and Science - especially people who wanted to be apprentices!). Moreover I had also attained an NTC3 certificate from a reputable technical college. “What else could a potential employer look for?” I used to think.
Now, even though the conditions were not as favourable for black people at the time, some of my really struggling colleagues snapped jobs left, right and centre. Lady luck was just not ready to visit me. I might have attended something between 10 – 15 interviews – all culminating to that usual “regret to advise you that you have been unsuccessful” response.
I eventually gave up and accepted that this was the wrong field for me. To be honest I blamed everyone else, but myself for that dilemma! Somehow to endorse my feelings, the Universe consoled me with a Laboratory Technician trainee position at a Blood Transfusion Services -almost immediately after I had decided to look for “any job I could find.” But a little while later my turn finally arrived, i.e. to pursue the original dream, The details are too weird to include herein but suffice just to say that the company was Unilever – one of the best companies one could ever work for at the time.
This is really amazing, even when I think of it to this day. Right on the very first day, our training officer, Mr Snayman, gave each of us a 5-litre paint, a couple of paint brushes and a welding machine that needed painting. “Amongst some of you here there are those who will become really good electricians in future.” He said. “Unfortunately there are also those of you who will never make it at all.”
The person with the least paint on the floor will take the crown and anyone who would end up with paint all over the floor would be advised to consider changing his career. To cut the whole story short, I would end up with position six out of six contestants. In fact the whole thing was so embarrassing that the other colleagues had to help me to finish my task. “It is because I never painted before,” I convinced myself – but I still cannot paint to this day.
Actually I should have realised my handicap as early as primary school when my craft work just could not cut it! I was never meant to be good with hands – God had compensated for such weakness with other strengths at the top of the head. Now I cannot imagine where I would be today had I not failed many times at the all the lost courses I mistakenly assumed - and I today really appreciate the opportunity I had for that painting IQ test.
It is strange sometimes that we just close the door on God’s face even when we fully understand what he is trying to tell us – usually in the name of “positive thinking”. And of cause, we all know, the real culprit is the fear of the unknown. The writing was on the wall. I was not meant to be where I was – and I could actually have realized that earlier during all those interviews I floundered!
Consciously I must admit, even today, I knew that it was just fear that prevented me from heeding in that Universal call to change that job (or even that the career) back then – well until the Universe sent that senior electrician who called me “a garden boy”. How else could I have acquired compelling enough reasons to quite that terrible job? No, that is not true. The job was fine; I was the square peg trying to fit into a round whole.
Failing is indeed at times not such a bad thing after all. Just as much as we can learn from our successes, the greatest teacher though - more often than not - tend to be failure. We need to look closer at those little things that were meant to be easy, but we just fail to do. Of cause common wisdom gives us the same advice on those things that come naturally to us. This is where our passions and our talents are concealed! In fact that is how we might strike the bull’s eye - i.e. to discover our purpose on earth.
A little while ago I was invited to speak in a function for young entrepreneurs and I heard myself opening up with this statement: “My life is made of nothing else, but just strings of failures connected together through very weak cords of awards and mistaken promotions.”
Isn’t about time we embrace our failures as much as we take pride in our successes. Have we not heard what those with a knack for achievement have always told us: “Failure is the event - and we are not the events?”
You are indeed God’s greatest miracle. Bless you all! |
