Daily Nugget of Gold 692
Celebrating in the Failures of Others
Have you noticed that some people seem to find their joy in observing others fail? This seems to be particularly true if the person, group, or organization which had a failure is usually successful at what they do. Sometimes the celebration of someone’s failure is at the very beginning of a person endeavoring to do more with their lives. Why do people act this way? What is it about seeing someone attempt something extraordinarily difficult and then failing at it that these people find enjoyable? Can you guess?
In spite of a great deal of effort on a lot of parents, teachers, mentors, and motivators in people’s lives, most people don’t actually achieve the greatness they are capable of. Most people are or become content with living a nondescript, ordinary life working a job to earn a little time off here and there and raise a family. Most of these people would also love to see their own children become great themselves- but few of them actually attempt to do this in their own lives. Somehow there seems to be redemption to the parent if their offspring achieve even though they themselves didn’t.
The main reason people enjoy seeing the failure of others is that they believe they feel better about themselves in the process. What’s interesting about this particular flaw in the human thought process is that it’s not uncommon for otherwise successful people in business to engage in it. May we point out that if they do- if people take joy in “knocking a competitor” when things don’t go right for them, they have left the creative plain themselves and are now in reaction, and reaction is a very treacherous place to be in business because it means, by definition, that you are one step behind.
Remember that those who are the most successful in life are also those who have met with failure again and again. In fact, failure is an integral part of success. Failure means you are trying things untried before, you are doing things in a different way than others have done them before. Accepting that failure happens on the road to success, but never letting it stop your journey on that road is what it’s all about. Don’t get into the habit of feeling happy that someone failed at something, celebrate that they are in the game and trying!
“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan
Question of the Day to Ask Ourselves
“Do I engage in celebrating when people fail, if so, why?”
Copyright 2012 Kevin Littleton, all rights reserved.
