DOMINIC WILLIAM ACEBO

From Failure, To Success

Have you ever tried doing your best but do not succeed? Or you fail every time you try again? until tears
fall down on your cheeks because you are starting to lose hope. Hope that you can do it. Hope that you
can reach your dreams. Or you are starting to lose hope because you feel like failure. You feel like you
are left behind, and that some people around you are starting to doubt you and your dreams. And then,
you are losing hope to yourself.

“Failure is success in progress,” Albert Einstein once said. The progress bar would be filled with the word
“failure”. Meaning, the more there is failure, the more we load up to success. So, whenever you feel like
you are not having any success on you goals due to many failures, remember that those very failures can
also mean you are moving closer toward success. Those failures are shaping and teaching you in ways
you may not realize. Just like Albert Einstein, he developed the special and general theories of relativity
and won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921 for his explanation of the photoelectric effect. As a child he
didn’t start speaking until he was four, reading until he was seven, and was thought to be mentally
handicapped. Did he fail at math class? No, He did fine on the math section. In fact, he said that “Before I
was 15, I had mastered differential and integral calculus.” but failed the language, botany and zoology
sections, according to history.com. A 1984 New York Times story says that the essay Einstein wrote for
this exam was “full of errors”. And it took him nine years to get a job in Academia. But he is well-known up
until this generation despite him, failing those other courses.

Filipino successful business man Alfredo M. Yao, the founder of Zest-O Corporation also experienced
failure before he become who he is now. Yao first experienced failure when poverty forced him out of
school. After earning his doctorate degree at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, he opened his
own printing press. There he saw the potential of “doy packs”—plastic containers that can stand upright—
and pitched it to beverage companies in the late ’70s. His idea was rejected by juice manufacturers at the
time, so he spent hours in his own kitchen and concocted his own juice. Zest-O was born, and from there
he founded banking, realty, and airline companies. “IF THERE’S A WILL, THERE’S A WAY.” The
proverb means that if a person is determined to achieve or do something, he will find a way to accomplish
it regardless of obstacles. No one can stop you from doing what you want to achieve you goal except
yourself. When you fail it falls upon you to get back up. This is not easy, and sometimes you will need a
helping hand.

Another Filipino who is a successful businessman, Socorro C. Ramos. The Founder of National Book
Store. When Ramos and her late husband opened their first store in Escolta, they had to find ways to
survive a wave of hardships: heavy book censorship by the Japanese during the war, fire that razed their
first branch during the Battle of Manila, and a typhoon destroying almost all of their merchandise after the
war. Despite all of these, they persevered and now have more than 100 branches nationwide, on top of
the family’s other investments. Do you ever wonder why a pencil has an eraser? An eraser can erase the
part you messed up using the pencil. And who knows? You while erasing the mess, you can come up
with more brilliant idea than what you have messed up. Every person, and every business, needs to fail at
some point -- for failure is the very seed of growth and success.
You see, there are lots of successful people who experienced failure and still manage to come where they
are now. I myself do not want failure, and I can assume that you don’t either. Not only is failure painful
and humiliating, it usually means that the return on our time, effort, and money is zero. Unfortunately, as
much as we hate failure, it is guaranteed. We need to accept that in order to grow, you need failure, it is
life's ultimate lesson. There is value in failure. Through failure, you will get to know yourself better and you
will learn from your mistakes. Failures make us rethink, reconsider, and find new ways and strategies to
achieve our goals.

So, if you are struggling with hopelessness and feel like you are barely treading water. Just don’t push
yourself too hard. It is not bad to breathe sometimes and prevail in time of failure. Life isn’t a race after all.
Take time to heal emotionally. Failure is often heartbreaking, and you won’t get over it in a day. So, if you
have just lost out on a big idea, failed on your product launch, been fired by a big client, or filed for
bankruptcy, know that you won’t feel bright and cheery for a while. But until you get to the point that you
are fully healed; I urge you to smile. Remind yourself that there is no success without failure. If you want
to succeed at anything, you need to remind yourself that you will fail several times before getting to that
point. When you fail, your natural instinct will be to beat yourself up. However, dwelling on your failures
and blaming yourself for your mistakes is a drain on your energy. Instead, you need to accept that
mistakes will occur, and failure will happen. Once you accept this, then you can focus on shaping your
success. Then Continue pressing forward. When you mess up, don’t get stuck in a pit of failure. But you
also need to Take a step back. I know that I said that you need to press forward once you have failed,
however, taking a step back before you move forward again can be very helpful. By taking a step back
you can get a clearer picture of where you messed up, giving you the chance to re-evaluate your
decisions. Once you have situated yourself, you can start moving forward with strong purpose. Stay
motivated! You can do it.