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Very often we come across stories of successful people who during their early stages of life had tasted the bitterness of failure. Many a times we too narrate such stories to support and strengthen our belief in hard work. The lists of such personalities are endless and quite impressive too. We all know the names, but to mention a few:

Albert Einstein couldn’t speak till he was four and didn’t read till he was seven. His teachers did not pin high hopes on him. But, eventually he changed the concept of physics to earn a noble prize later in his life.

Walt Disney was fired from his job because his news editor felt he lacked imagination. Today his creativity is embossed on several merchandise, movies and theme parks all over the globe.

Thomas Edison was written off by his teacher as “too stupid to learn anything”, but he illuminated the world with his efforts.

Abraham Lincoln, who proved to be a political prodigy, taught himself law during free times. He was also known as the honest Abe, who pulled the nation through the most troubled times.

Sandeep Singh Bhinder is an Indian professional field Hockey player. At a time when he was at his peak he was hit by a stray bullet. He was paralyzed and was confined to a wheel chair for two years. All lost hope of his playing again. But he rose like a phoenix, not only did he recover from the grievous injury but also established himself again in the team.

Ritesh Agarwal started a business of ‘bed n breakfast’ under the name Oravel Stays. It failed miserably. He however didn’t lose heart and started a new business which flourished under the name OYO Rooms.

Amitabh Bachchan , who is a legend in himself has had his share of massive failures and yet today his name is celebrated as a success.

APJ Abdul Kalam, earned average grades in school and was once threatened of revoking the scholarship in school. The history today bears a testimony to his success.

As a parent we narrate the stories to our kids and then we digress from the real purpose of the stories. We start expecting the children to pursue a professional course like engineering, medical etc.. to become a famous personality. We equate the failures of these personalities to the distaste shown by our children in some specific subjects. We coax our children to take up courses and professions not of their choices by quoting the examples of failures faced by these personalities and then we hopelessly hope them to be successful in wrong fields.

In our zeal to make kids successful we forget the essence of the stories. The success does not come as a miracle or destiny. Success is not being a scientist or an Engineer. Success is a result of relentless efforts, toiling, passion which is often invisible in the stories. If Edison is today remembered for the illuminated bulbs, then we must also not forget that he had tried 1000 types of bulbs to ultimately light up the bulbs we use now.

The important point to ponder in these stories is finding the element that turned the failures into success. It is usually exhibiting a single clearly defined focus. It is perseverance, persistence, patience and passion to succeed in your field. If we teach our kids to practice and value these virtues, they will surpass our expectations and do wonders in their lives. Let us not teach them to be like someone else. Let us give them some space to etch an identity of their own, something new, something unique and something really admirable.