Till the date if I have any achievement to boast about, it is no. of failures I had! I failed in academics, sports, as an ideal son, as an ideal brother and as an ideal friend. Failed the expectations of family, friends, society, etc. I was shy in school days, I couldn’t speak fluently and confidently, my presence was often of no significance. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. I always wondered why was I studying in school, why was I appearing for exams, why was I competing with people on the terms of memorizing text books. I was thinking differently which made me fail even as a social animal because I could hardly socialize then with my age group.
I joined engineering few years later only to realize a new failure was awaiting me. I was expecting to work on machines, running here and there in lab with a tool box, but rather I found myself snoring in a classroom 8hrs a day and running after professors with journals for their autographs. I again failed to adapt with the obsolete education system and lost interest. Only few weeks after joining Engineering, I realized Engineering is not worthy of my 4yrs, I stopped attending lectures, didn’t even appear for exams. Three months later my parents were invited to college for felicitation, my parents were hit hard when they learned that I’ll be not allowed to appear for university exams, They were insulted for my failures. Principal advised my parents to get rid of me, disown me, stop wasting money on me. HOD insulted my parents saying that not even a single student of my class recognize me. My mom told me just one sentence, ‘ I have been called upon to insult, if you really respect us, ensure that a day comes when I can visit this college keeping my head high.’
Today when I look back, I actually failed only in choosing a measuring scale for failure and success. As a famous proverb says, ‘If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend it’s whole life considering itself stupid.’ I never choose to compete in academics with my age group, I was dragged in the race and then I considered myself failure. Till the time I reached engineering, society made me believe that I was a synonym to failure. Success was a distant dream for me. If there was any confidence left in me, it was my confidence on failure. I failed because I had something to loose every time. While in school I failed because I had hopes of my parents to loose, while in engineering I failed because I had expectations of the society, norms of university, hopes of my parents to loose. But on that day I lost everything. My parents lost all their hopes in me, I lost all the self-esteem and confidence long ago, I was a pauper.
Suddenly, I started feeling light because I didn’t had any hopes of society on my shoulders. Somehow, there was a thirst to gain back the status quo, my self-esteem, confidence, etc. I got that opportunity few weeks later. My college conducted a competition named Mr. Persona every year, the winner was given the title of the college and the title of Mr. Persona. It was not just a ramp walk, but something where brains could be applied, finally I found at least one place in engineering where brains could be applied and not mere memorizing. My senior motivated me to participate, all he told me was, if you loose, you dont hv anyhitng to loose, but if you win, you will gain back everything because it is the most prestigious title of the college and everyone including principal respected it. I enrolled for the competition, cleared the auditions. Final 3 rounds of the competition were to be conducted on stage in front of thousands of audience. I won the competition and the title too but it was not the real victory. The real victory was when the host asked the audience to guess the name of the winner and thousands of people echoed together my name ‘Aman Jha’, I felt that was the day when my mom could visit my college again keeping her head high. I won few more such competitions and became quite famous in college.
Now, let me tell you I never ever even stood on the stage or addressed even a group of 10 people before that competition. But I had a strange confidence within myself due to which I could win that title. My long acquaintance with failure ripped me of any fear for failure. I realized how important those failures were for me to realize that victory. Had I never failed in my life, I bet, I’d hv not even bothered to try to win the title. It was my failures which made me strive longer.
Thereafter, I changed my measuring scale, I realized business is where my interest lies. Today I know what I want to do with my life. Today, I am a serial Entrepreneur….!
As Napoleon used to burn his ships for victory, your failures burn your ESCAPE SHIPS so that you don’t have any other option left except to WIN!
