Is failure necessary to provoking success? I've always wondered if such were the case. After all, there are far more stories of people failing x times before standing up in success than there are of those who've easily cruised their way into prosperity. I do find the sentiment that preaches failure as a pre-requisite to reaching your peak fatiguing; that we must fall down to get back up again is one of the most frustrating standards to reconcile. I understand failure and see its value in promoting hard work and a disciplined work ethic - but I don't like it. There is nothing wrong with failing, I would just prefer I didn't. That fear of disappointing stems from the perfectionist in me - the critic who would prefer the path to success not be paved with failure.

I've always found it amusing that we as a society, as a people, as a country, have long taught the merit of hard work while stressing the fact that nothing comes easy. It's amusing because I live in America - a colonialist superpower notorious for taking what it wants, sharing it between the few and leaving the rest to fight for the scraps. Going off of the strength of this country's history, taking is very easy, and even generational. The concept of teaching continued fighting despite failure is not taught to all people - there are some who things come easy for, though it is a limited bunch. For them, the concept of failure does not hold the same weight as it does for others. Some are allowed to fail continuously and without shame or rebuke, while others are literally given one shot and then met with derision if they so much as take a break. Watching some cruise by on the former, all the while the latter are constantly taught that their unending hard work and failing a couple times is an absolute necessity to growth, sometimes makes Failure: An Ingredient to Success, feel like a pious platitude designed to keep the peking order intact.

But we're not here to talk about the woes of capitalism and its constant exploitation of labor.

No, failure, like most all things, is subjective. What is success to me may not be success to you, the next person, the person after next, etc. However we cannot deny the ubiquitous, superficial ideal which constitutes what makes a failure and what makes a success.

Though it is annoying, I cannot lie, there is some motivation in falling down. For me, the adrenaline rush and, "alright, how can we be better"-esque attitude is one of the most intoxicating feelings. Knowing that you can rise, like a phoenix from the ashes, is part of the American experience - we have to fall down sometimes, some even more than others.

How can we become better if we don't?

But do we become better because we fall?

I suppose that's dependent on the individual.

It is such a norm that I'm not too sure I would feel comfortable achieving my wildest dreams without failing. The promotion of failure as a gateway to success will always confuse me because there are some who get to avoid it entirely. I am, unfortunately, not one of the lucky few, but I'm working on me. I guess as long as I'm doing something about it, that is all that ultimately matters.