If you read any book, watch any video, or listen to anyone talk about success — even your own parents — everyone talks about success. How to be successful, who became successful, how you’ll become successful. Don’t think negative, don’t think about failure.
So everybody is talking only about success and completely neglecting the other part, which is much bigger than the probability of success: failure.
Here’s a question: if someone tries something new or enters any competitive field, what are the chances of success versus failure? You said the possibility of failing is higher. So actually, what you’re doing is working towards success, but what’s the reality going to be? Failure.
It’s like buying a lottery ticket hoping you’ll win, but actually what’s going to happen? You probably won’t win. Maybe you will, but the chances are very low.
The smart way of thinking
If we could understand before doing any work what’s actually going to happen based on possibility and probability, and how to manage it, and whether it’s going to be a good failure or bad failure — that would be called the smart way of working in life.
Have you looked at the best-case scenario and the worst-case scenario, planned for both, and then taken action? But what’s the problem? You’ve looked at the best-case scenario, but you’re not even thinking about the worst case. There’s no planning for it, even though the possibility of it happening is much higher.
So you’re going to get stuck.
How to tell good failure from bad failure
Now the question is: how do we understand whether the failure that’s going to happen from the work we’re doing will be good or bad? How do we make this distinction?
Use your brain to understand whether your failure is good or bad. You first have to understand yourself. You have to give yourself time to understand where you lack, where failure could happen. If you understand where you lack, then if failure happens, you’ll work on it. And then you’ll make a different plan for yourself.
Notice what just happened in our thinking flow? Even after I’ve said all this, we’re still not ready to accept that the work we’re doing has a very high chance of failing and a very low chance of succeeding.
Flipping your thinking
So what should we be saying in life? “If this experiment fails, then…” Not “If this experiment succeeds, then…” Because there’s a 99% chance it will fail.
This is a very subtle point. If you can see this — that wherever you’re going to do something where there’s a lot of competition, where there are other people who are better than you or at your level, it’s like a race where you’re running and there are people running faster than you. In such a race where lakhs of people are running, your possibility of winning is very low and losing is very high.
So why don’t we say: “If I succeed, then…” instead of planning for what happens when we fail, which is what we should focus on?
This is exactly the opposite of how we act or how people around us talk, or how so-called motivational speakers talk. “You can do it, you can do this, you can do that.”
That’s fine, that’s all right in its place at one level — when you’re completely broken, when failure has happened, when you’re losing courage. At that time you need all that to pick yourself up. Motivation helps after failure, not before failure.
The real Plan A vs Plan B
Look, everything in life is necessary, but what mistake do we make? We try to fit one thing everywhere. That doesn’t work.
First, you need to sit calmly, coolly, without any excitement and understand what you need to do and what you don’t. You need to make a decision. There, you don’t need any motivation. In fact, if someone is motivating you too much, there’s definitely a motive behind it that doesn’t benefit you — it benefits them. So not getting motivated there is wise. Getting motivated everywhere is not wise.
Listen carefully to what I’m saying: if you look at the flow in your thinking, like what was just said — “if I fail, then I’ll do the opposite” — it should actually be the opposite. Like a scientist says, “if my experiment succeeds, then…” because they know it’s going to fail a thousand times. They’re prepared for failure.
But we’re not prepared for failure. We’re even scared to talk about failure. We don’t have any backup plan, most of us don’t. So is this the right way to move forward in life? No.
What this looks like in real life
So what should the approach be? Flip it: “If I fail, then…” Not “If I succeed, then…” You can think about success, but don’t get too excited about it because the possibility of it happening is very low. So don’t get excited there. Prepare for what? Failure. “If it doesn’t happen, what will I do?” That must be very clear.
If you’re taking action after this planning, doing any work, and you’re okay with it — that is good failure. Because you’ve already taken that into account.
Plus, think about this: how will that failure be useful to me? If I go somewhere and apply for a job, will the four years I spent be useful there? If it will be useful, that is good failure because then it becomes like a stepping stone.
But if you’re going for a job and those four years you spent won’t be useful anywhere — that is bad failure.
A simple example
Let me make it simpler. You’re working somewhere, someone comes to you and says, “There’s nothing in jobs. Nobody really wants to do a job anyway.” (By the way, most heart attacks worldwide happen on Monday mornings — this is proven data.) So nobody really wants to do it.
So someone comes and says, “Brother, do you want to do a job? No. Then why are you doing it? Come with us, be your own boss.” And someone shows you a big dream. You quit your job. They show you, “How much are you earning in your job? 50,000? That’s nothing. Look at this — a 5 lakh check.”
Your eyes light up. You’re ready to be motivated. You get motivated. You quit your secure job thinking, “Nothing’s going to happen with this 50,000, I’ll earn 5 lakhs.”
Six months later, forget 5 lakhs — you haven’t even made 5,000. From your pocket, you’ve spent 50,000. Now you’re wandering around. You’ve even ruined your friendships. Your friends see you and walk the other way.
Are you understanding what I’m saying? Your friends aren’t your friends anymore. Your relatives aren’t your relatives anymore. Your job isn’t your job anymore. And let’s say you’re married with kids — you don’t have money for your children’s school fees. There’s daily conflict at home with your wife.
Is this good failure or bad failure? Bad failure. A very bad failure.
And this isn’t happening to just two or four people. It’s happening to lakhs of people.
The government job example
Let’s say there’s a government job that everyone is crazy about. I don’t even need to say which one. Many of you sitting here are probably crazy about it too. Raise your hands — how many are crazy about it?
What’s the problem with it? Very few seats. Very many applicants. And there’s no shortage of people who will prepare you for it.
Am I right or wrong?
And there’s no shortage of motivation there. Motivating you and your parents and your family is very easy.
All your wildest possible dreams and your parents’ and your family’s wildest possible dreams can come true if this happens.
So now you get motivated by someone or some academy and say, “This is what I have to do.” You try once — it doesn’t happen. Twice — it doesn’t happen. Four times — it doesn’t happen. And in trying to do this, you’ve left everything else you were doing, whatever other plan you had.
So is this good failure or bad failure? Bad failure.
The right way to think about it
But let’s say you went to an academy and prepared for your dream job, but you’ve thought: “Yes, the possibility of this happening is very low, but this preparation I’m doing will be useful here even if not there. So if I don’t get this job, I’ll definitely get this other one.”
Is this good failure or bad failure? Good failure. Because now you’re thinking practically, planning, moving forward realistically.
And it’s also clear to you that what you’re calling Plan B — “if this doesn’t happen, then this” — that’s actually Plan A.
I’ll say it again so this really sinks in: it’s actually Plan A that you’re calling Plan B.
If you listen carefully to what I’m saying, whatever roadmap you’ve imagined for your future will turn completely upside down. Your Plan A will become Plan B, and your Plan B will become your Plan A.
If this is actually happening and you’re acting this way, thinking this way, and your family is also thinking this way — that’s good failure. Or that’s not even failure — that’s success.
The bottom line
Success is based on a lot of factors. Whether you’ll crack that competitive exam depends on a lot of factors. There are many stages. It depends on a lot of factors.
But failure is completely in your hands. Success is not in your hands.
So manage failure. Why are you taking tension about success?
When you don’t have any plan, when all your plans are just different versions of the same low-probability outcome — that means you don’t actually have any plan.
The quickest way to better yourself is not to obsess over success. It’s to understand failure, plan for it, and make it work for you.
Because if you understand failure, if you can manage it, if you can make it useful — success will come on its own.
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