|
|
 |
Along Life’s Way
Success and
Failure: A Fable
© 2018 Lois E. Wilson
There were two families. Each differed on the role success and failure
should play in the lives of their children.
The Exempts believed that winning and success are the most important
goals in life. The Exempt parents guarded their son and daughter
closely to ensure that they did not experience failure. They expected
only A’s on their children’s report cards.
Their son participated in sports. They chose leagues whose philosophy
was that all team members would play and that a score was never kept so
that teams never lost. It was to protect those on the teams from losing
which might damage the participants’ character development.
When the Exempts’ daughter didn’t pass the tryout requirements for the
cheerleading squad, her mother confronted the judges. She complained so
forcibly that they relented and put the girl on the squad.
The Verity family let their son and daughter participate in competitive
sports and other activities. They had a more free-range viewpoint on
child rearing—you win some; you lose some. Failure was not ignored;
they dealt with it.
When the son had trouble with Spanish class, they hired a tutor and he
passed. The daughter tried out for the school choir. She did not have
the voice to be a soloist, but she found enjoyment in being a part of
the group as a supporting singer.
How were the Exempts’ children affected by the “winner only” approach?
When rules were changed to achieve successes, others around them began
to resent them. They had the burden of believing they always had to be
right. They were growing up in a fantasy world of never failing, so
they never learned the lessons of failure. They soon believed the world
revolved around them, and they could win by cheating.
What lessons did losing teach the Verity children? They learned the
reality that sometimes you lose or fail, so acknowledge your efforts
and learn from them. Success follows failure. You learn flexibility as
you try new approaches—there is more than one right way. Failing also
helps one develop humility. Failure will never stop the determined to
persevere and move on to new challenges.
Moral: Never begin to think that the planet belongs to you and everyone
else is just visiting. The only people who don’t fail are those who
never do anything.
|
|
|
<
|
