音频下载[点击右键另存为][00:00.33]Passage 69 Failure Is a Good Thing

[00:06.34]Last week, my granddaughter started kindergarten, and I wished her success.

[00:12.69]I was lying.

[00:13.76]What I actually wish for her is failure.

[00:17.92]I believe in the power of failure.

[00:20.76]Success is boring.

[00:23.06]Success is proving that you can do something that you already know you can do,

[00:29.52]or doing something correctly the first time, which can often be a problematic victory.

[00:36.41]First-time success is usually a fluke.

[00:40.57]First-time failure, by contrast, is expected; it is the natural order of things.

[00:48.45]Failure is how we learn.

[00:51.18]I have been told of an African phrase describing a good cook as "she who has broken many pots."

[01:00.15]If you've spent enough time in the kitchen to have broken a lot of pots,

[01:05.73]probably you know a lot about cooking.

[01:09.23]I once had a dinner with a group of chefs,

[01:13.28]and they spent time comparing knife wounds and burn scars.

[01:17.99]They knew how much credibility their failures gave them.

[01:22.58]I earn my living by writing a daily newspaper column.

[01:27.28]Each week I am aware that one column is going to be the worst column.

[01:32.97]I don't set out to write it; I try my best every day.

[01:37.68]I have learned to cherish that column.

[01:41.73]A successful column usually means that I am treading on familiar ground,

[01:47.42]going with the tricks that work or dressing up popular sentiments in fancy words.

[01:53.87]Often in my inferior columns, I am trying to pull off something I've never done before,

[02:01.53]something I'm not even sure can be done.

[02:05.03]My younger daughter is a trapeze artist.

[02:08.86]She spent three years putting together an act.

[02:12.36]She did it successfully for years.

[02:15.54]There was no reason for her to change the act- but she did anyway.

[02:20.68]She said she was no longer learning anything new and she was bored.

[02:25.81]So she changed the act.

[02:28.33]She risked failure and profound public embarrassment in order to feed her soul.

[02:34.68]My granddaughter is a perfectionist.

[02:38.18]She will feel her failures, and I will want to comfort her.

[02:43.00]But I will also, I hope, remind her of what she learned,

[02:48.68]and how she can do whatever it is better next time.

[02:53.61]I hope I can tell her, though, that it's not the end of the world.

[02:58.43]Indeed, with luck, it is the beginning.