Students’ Speak: Don’t worry about first attempt in learning

By: Donika Juthani

I want to explain the biggest myth that most people think leads them to success and here’s the myth -  if you’re scared to fail, you won’t fail.

There are two things, the first one is a failure and the other one is success and if you love success, there is nothing that can stop you. All the negative things people say will mean nothing. They will only talk about how only one percent makes it amongst the top ones. Want to know something else? Only one percent stick to the fitness program long enough to see results, only one percent nerds stick with that video game long enough to get good at it. This doesn’t mean you have 1 percent chance, it just means you can’t behave like the 99 percent. Take a good look around you, are you like the 99% of people around you?

Fight like a winner

You have to cherish success because that’s going to help you get up and go for it. Being scared to fail won’t do anything. In fact, when you love success and you start going for it, you’re going to fail, you are going to fail 10 times, 100 times, maybe even a thousand times but there’s no problem. Failure isn’t permanent, falling isn’t permanent. When you fail, you give your first attempt in learning. You get right back up and keep going and this time, you are going to be stronger, wiser and you’ll be more driven than ever. For every 10 failures, you land one success. You can fail 10 times before you can succeed once and that’s how a winner does it.

I want to explain the biggest myth that most people think leads them to success and here’s the myth -  if you’re scared to fail, you won’t fail. I believed so and thought that being scared to fail in life would keep me from falling. I would look at the losers around me and I would say, I don’t want to turn out like him.

I really believed this thought would help me succeed. However, one day, I was walking down the street and saw an old man of about 80 years. He was struggling hard to walk. He was walking across the street and ended up falling. I went over to help him and we ended up introducing ourselves. We had a little conversation and the moment he walked away, I told him to stay inside where it’s safe. He turned around and replied that he loved walking rather than afraid of falling. I asked him about his safety. He replied solo living means doing what you love and even if he falls he won’t mind and he just walked away.

Love for success leads to success

But that statement really had me thinking hard because I learned something that day. Thus I realised that it is the real key to success. I realised it’s the love for success that will lead me to success. So, just imagine if that old man feared to fall, would he start walking? Of course not. He wouldn’t do it if he didn't love to do that. He would just sit at home and take no action but he loved walking, wasn’t even scared to fall. That’s what allowed him to get up and do it.

He loved walking without having the fear of falling as he was willing to fall 10 times a day just to do it. You need to have the same spirit. So, the next time someone tells you that you’re going to fail, you know what you tell them? Tell them they’re right but you are not afraid to fail, you’re not afraid to take action. You’re going to fail 10 times, but it’s alright because on the 11th time you’ll succeed and it’ll feel good. And, while you are here living the life of your dreams and complete happiness, guess where they are going to be, they’ll be failures, the real failures over there where it’s safe, scared to fail.

Just consider there is no darkness to light up, there is no wall to break and this was just your perception due to fear. Your fear of failing is the root cause of all the problems. If the fear of failure vanishes from you forever, imagine the things you could have done and/or achieved. If the fear of not succeeding is never there, no one can ever stop you from succeeding. You see yourself succeeding every time and you have a vision with a dream to accomplish.

You are already 10 steps ahead of 95 percent of the world. Imagine if Michael Jordan was scared of missing, he would have never taken a shot. Imagine Steve Jobs not liking his product, there would be no iPhone. So, ask yourself - would you like to be a person who fears failure or do you want to be a person who loves success?

Comparison is the root cause of your fear of failure. When you compare yourself with someone else or when you compare your current situation with some other situation or when you compare you with yourself, fear grows. If you overcome these three situations, there will be no fear of failure. If you have no greed for success, you will not lose anything.

Don’t care about anyone

Consider this real-life situation. There is a dance competition and there are four contestants. All of them have the same dance technique, have the same teacher and have practiced for the same amount of time. One dances aiming that it is either a win or lose, but this is final. For him dance is passion and he doesn’t care whether he loses or wins, he doesn’t care about the judges or the audience or his competitors or any of his previous performances.  Another one dances to please the audience and the judges. This number 2 dancer will have imaginary walls of fear around him - “If the audience is not happy, what will happen? If judges are not happy with my performance, I will fail. I have risen to a great height but so is my fear.” Number 3 contestants will perform to win over his competitors. Even this person will have walls around him. If his potential is 100 and his opponent’s potential is 10, his benchmark will just be 10. But the walls of fear around him will make him a question- “What if I don’t reach that 10?” Contestant number 4 doesn’t care about the audience or the judges or his opponents, what matters to him is his previous performance. According to him, the last one was his best performance. Today, he needs to perform better than that. Again there are walls of fear around him. Only contestant number 1 doesn’t have walls of fear engulfing him. Who is going to win in the end? Contestant number 1. Because he is unstoppable. You will always find these four kinds of people and you have to decide which one you want to become.

There might be times during your preparation of exams like JEE Main or JEE Advanced when you will start losing faith in yourself. At such times, you can watch motivational videos on YouTube if you feel low. Listen to good music and dance your heart out. Be happy with what you do. Enjoy the process, don’t fear failure, and don’t lose hope. Don’t let the fear of failure become permanent and don’t let it settle in your brain. Hope this is helpful.

About the Author:

Donika Juthani is pursuing BTech in ICT (Information and Communication Technology) from DAIICT. She is also an upcoming summer intern at Goldman Sachs. Donika is a ML (Machine Learning) enthusiast and skilled in Python, HTML, CSS, and MySQL. She is a member of the programming club at DAIICT and responsible for organizing SisCode, an initiative to motivate and guide female students in competitive programming.