Apollo 1 Command module, after the fire that killed Gus Grissom, Edward White II, and Roger Chaffee.
I’ve been thinking about failure a lot lately. Not only my failures but the concept of failure in general. In a time where everyone seems divided in some capacity, failure is still a rudimentary universal experience everyone can relate to. From leadership, avionics, innovation, friendships, and academia. All failure at their point of perception feel earth-shattering.
Like gravity, failure seems like a unstoppable force, yet it still manages to cause dread and often emotionally charged reactionary actions. Also like gravity, I am trying to be one with failure. Of course, I am not saying that I am freely encouraging failure, but trying my best to learn from it when it happens and leave the emotional side of failure behind me. While a lot of things in my life have gone well, my failures are always going to be what I remember the most (maybe as it should be).
While I recognize that when James Madison said: "…it is better to leave a few of its noxious branches to their luxuriant growth, than, by pruning them away, to injure the vigor of those yielding the proper fruits." he was referring to freedom of the press I feel like the same thing can be said about failures. I am nothing more than the sum of my actions, failures notwithstanding. And all great feats in life follow the same framework.
Anyway friends, good things are bound for all of us, keep owning and learning from mistakes, and godspeed.
-J
Great perfection appears defective,
but its usefulness is not diminished.
Great fullness appears empty,
but its usefulness is not impaired.
Great straightness seems crooked,
Great cleverness seems clumsy,
Great triumph seems awkward.
Bustling about vanquishes cold,
Standing still vanquishes heat
Pure and still, one can put things right everywhere under heaven.
- Translated by Victor Mair, The Daodejing, Chapter 45