Failure is not final - it is just a success that got postponed

Harsha Bhogle told during a lecture that in Australian Army, they will reject candidates who have faced no failures in their life! Because such guys won’t know what to do in a war situation in which they are facing failure. They will be stunned and won’t be able to respond appropriately. Hence they are rejected though they might have all the relevant skills!

I met with a friend who couldn’t clear IAS exams in 4 attempts (max no. of attempts was 4 at his time). He was a guy who had the dream to become a Collector right from his school days. He cleared the written exams with top mark but he was rejected during the interview for flimsy reason like he had given lowest pritority for IFS (Indian Foreign Service). For the uninitiated, the exam for IAS, IFS, IRS, etc is same and they have to give priorities for each of these positions in their application. Apparently the chief panel member who was interviewing him was IFS and she felt that his priorities are ‘wrong(!)’ and hence gave him very low marks which ultimately led to him being rejected!

He was telling that there are so many like him who couldn’t clear it in 4 attempts. There are many cases where such failed aspirants have committed suicide. I felt sad. These are the guys who could have become the future leaders of our country.

My friend is made of stronger stuff and he has moved on with another profession successfully. I couldn’t understand how others cope with such pressures. My own friend had prepared for over 8 years after college for IAS preparations. Most of his productive age (21-30) have been spent on this and he couldn’t clear it. This was similar to the efforts of many other candidates. Just imagine how it will be if you are unfairly rejected after all that effort because the interviewer thought your priority given for IFS are wrong!

Since all these candidates have spent full-time on the preparation, they can’t get any other job easily. Most Companies place importance to the candidates’ educational qualifications and experience rather than attitude.

I don’t understand why Private Companies won’t consider them for leadership roles. After all, these guys have been determined like anything to become leaders – right from young age. Most of them have the right attitude to lead the country itself – why won’t they be able to lead a company?

More importantly, they have faced failures. As per the example of Australian Army, now they can handle anything right? Why failures are considered a bad thing by recruiters? If recruiters want similar candidates it will be equivalent of looking for similar looking cookies from cutter.

They will get such candidates but can such candidates face failure situations? Can such candidates think out of the box under pressure situations?

When will our society start to think that failures are not to be looked down upon rather be treasured? When will we start accepting failure as solid proof that one has at least had the courage to think differently and give it a shot? When will the realization dawn on us that Failure is simply a postponement of Success?