Kingley Kobo, AfricaNews reporter in Abidjan, Ivory Coast
Failure is in the process of making success. Those who avoid failure also avoid success - Robert Kiyosaki. The one thing nobody wants to hear is failure. The one thing everybody wants to hold is success. Life ushers us this cheerful desire to keep fuelling our efforts of attaining an enviable summit.
But how many of you really know that success and failure are sisters clothed in identical garment, only with differing colours and fragrance?
These two forces abide in same household and mostly step out onto the street with same rhythm of stride. They ride in tandem, calling out to clients at the same time, but with unbalanced volume of sound.
Success screams louder and lures more people into her wagon, whereas failure endures her unpopularity waiting to recover those who will eventually drop off the wagon of success. These two sisters love themselves as much as their clients hate to be seen together.
In fact, failure doesn’t exist all by itself, it is the back side of success – I mean the dark part which is not affected by the light and glamour that splash the face of success. But for one instance, if success spins around on its axis to expose her back, the number of scars failure has written there would tell you how long both have befriended.
I interviewed an oil magnate recently. When I asked if he was a successful man, he said, “No, I’m not a successful man. I’m only an experienced man.”
What did he mean? I peered deeply into his round, red eyes and asked, “What do you mean by experience?” He coughed, downed his cognac and said, “Experience is a big sack containing dry bones of failure, tied at the mouth with a shining stout cord of success.”
Dry bones of failure
So, every success sits atop a sack jammed with dry bones of failure? Hm-m! But who wants to make a collection of such dry bones in order to achieve success? You don’t know when you do really. Your ambitions throw you out into a route guarded by success and failure, and as you soldier on, you seem to follow only the pull of success while frowning at the slightest whispering from failure.
Don’t forget both are watching you, calculating you and listening to your heartbeat, and are set to embrace you, somehow.
Your triumph depends on your steadfastness and not the fear not to fail. If you dread failure, you’ll appear too frail to be able to stand before the throne of success.
Take to heart that failure, like mistake, doesn’t wholly exist, she’s simply the shortage of success – or a cup half full of success!
Focus on attaining success but if you come short, you’ve just added one dry bone to the sack you’ll someday be tying up with that gold-plated cord of success.
PEOPLE is a new satirical column written by Kingsley Kobo every Thursday, see you next week.
Failure is in the process of making success. Those who avoid failure also avoid success - Robert Kiyosaki. The one thing nobody wants to hear is failure. The one thing everybody wants to hold is success. Life ushers us this cheerful desire to keep fuelling our efforts of attaining an enviable summit.
AFCON: 46 hurt in Zambia victory celebrations09/02
African Peer Review Mechanism making progress08/02
Combating HIV infections among African women08/02
Legume cultivation booms in Western Kenya07/02
Malawi vendors chase out Chinese07/02
Zim: Informal sector urged to join HIV battle05/02
Elections: Wole Soyinka warns Mugabe, Wade03/02
AU elections rescheduled for June in Malawi01/02
Senegal in turmoil as protest intensifies01/02
Zimbabwe’s inflation still favourable -…01/02
AFCON 2012: Sudan qualifies after four decades31/01
Senegalese opposition to intensify protests31/01
Malawi: Rights coalition condemn stripping of…30/01
Kenya to deworm five million children annually30/01
Benin’s Yayi Boni is AU’s new…30/01
