Excerpt from “The Majesty of Calmness” by William George Jordan
“Failure is often the turning-point, the pivot of circumstance that swings us to higher levels. It may not be financial success, it may not be fame; it may be new draughts of spiritual, moral or mental inspiration that will change us for all the later years of our life. Life is not really what comes to us, but what we get from it.
Whether man has had wealth or poverty, failure or success, counts for little when it is past. There is but one question for him to answer, to face boldly and honestly as an individual alone with his conscience and his destiny:
‘How will I let that poverty or wealth affect me? If that trial or deprivation has left me better, truer, nobler, then,―poverty has been riches, failure has been a success. If wealth has come to me and has made me vain, arrogant, contemptuous, uncharitable, cynical, closing from me all the tenderness of life, all the channels of higher development, of possible good to my fellow-man, making me the mere custodian of a money-bag, then,―wealth has lied to me, it has been failure, not success; it has not been riches, it has been dark, treacherous poverty that stole from me even Myself.’
All things become for us then what we take from them.”
Failure is not the ideal means to progress, but it always provides a means of starting anew, with an improved perspective. Many overlook the lessons that could be learned from failure by wallowing in the fact that they came up short, rather than emphasizing the freshly gained experience.
Failure may not feel good, may dent your ego or alter your plans, but it can be hugely valuable if it is handled wisely. Some develop the bad habit of beating themselves up unnecessarily when failure comes. They curse themselves on the tennis court, mope around the office, saying “I told you I wouldn’t amount to much” or “I knew I couldn’t do it.” The wise person looks failure squarely in the face and asks himself, “How can I discharge my responsibilities better next time?”
Life’s opportunities are unique configurations of circumstance that will never be repeated. Even if the circumstances appear to line up along the same lines from time to time, you will be a different person and the world will be a different place. Rather than looking for the perfect configuration of circumstances through which you theorize you will shine brightly or find happiness, look instead to reveal the highest and finest of which you are capable through every circumstance, no matter how broad or limited it may appear.
Your circumstances do not define you, you are defined by what you make of your circumstances.
Gregory Hake 
I’ve been enjoying all the excerpts from WGJ’s book. Thanks!!
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Simple, yet it really is the essence of success. One thing that stands out to me is how when this stance is taken, the tendency people have to compare themselves to others just disappears. Each person’s life is unique and when lived fully with the intent to reveal the best of yourself, that ends up really being all that matters. Everything else springs from that.
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Many authors and poets have touched on this phenomenon. Rudyard Kipling in his poem “If” wrote, “…If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two impostors just the same…” he ended his poem with, “..you’ll be a man, my son.”
Benjamin Disraeli wrote, “All my successes have been built on my failures.”
Confucius said, “Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail.”
The thought has been out there and many of these authors probably understood the secret of not creating contention in themselves by judging the circumstance.
Learning to acknowledge that seeds of future harvests may lay dormant until they find the right atmosphere to germinate; could become automatic. Failure does happen but disciplining ourselves not to judge the future value to our life’s process is key. What has been the common reaction and the acceptable one is to disparage oneself, disdain the experience or look to blame another for the failure. All of these approaches seem to completely negate the goal of success and drive you down the path of a factious existence.
There is even a Proverb that talks about a stumble preventing a fall.
I love this line of thinking and really appreciate your commentary Gregg and the comments from others.
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Whether we move forward from a point of failure or a point of success, it is still necessary to move forward. Overcoming the backward (or downward) momentum of failure requires as you say “looking failure squarely in the face”. Any tendencies here to blame someone else or something else, to obfuscate the facts or deny the whole episode will only serve to maintain the momentum of the failure.
I suppose too there could be another whole chapter on Success as a Failure or how to handle the momentum of success. I think of the tennis player who after making an amazing shot, misses the next three as he marvels at his victory. I always love your posts. They are great food for thought!
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These posts have really inspired me to identify, appreciate, and look to develop inner resources. No matter the climate, there is always more of myself to develop and make good use of.
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This series has astounded me every day with it’s simplicity of explanation that hits it’s mark dead center. Thank you.
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What an invigorating thought to greet each day with, “All things become for us what we take from them.” sometimes the best that can be taken from a situation is, “I will never do that to anyone” or “I am still responsible for how I use the power of my heart and thoughts.”
I believe there is a reckoning for each one and it has nothing to do with what we did or did not amass. I think it has everything to do with the one power we were given, free will. No one can control our thoughts and feelings; to what end have we used this precious resource?
Your comments about our opportunities and how we are defined are exhilarating to my soul, thank you!
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There is a reckoning; the accounts are always settled. When heart or mind are misused, the cost is happiness and fulfillment. No amount of material possessions will balance the account!
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The failure to learn from a failure is actually a double failure. So if you’re going to beat yourself up over failure, you better beat yourself up about beating yourself up, etc., ad nauseum.
While that seems ridiculous, it is actually what occurs more frequently than you’d think. A failure leads to a downward spiral that is difficult to recover from, where if that failure had been learned from, you would actually end up better than you had started (because you had learned from the failure)!
The other thing that Jordan touches on is that true success or failure has little to do with the metrics of success in modern society. In this he is absolutely right. There are “channels of higher development”, as he put it, that have nothing to do with what you do for a living, your social status, or how much money you make. You can develop (or fail to develop) those channels no matter who you are, where you are, or what is happening to you circumstantially. Thanks for another great post!
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The self-defeating tendencies you refer to are simply excuses for not doing the right thing. When too many people live their lives according to excuses the true necessity in the moment is moved further and further from sight. There is a crying need in our era for those who will assume responsibility, rather than point fingers. This must be resolved internally before it will hold any water externally. Thanks for your comment!
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I find that this perpsective on life that you and Mr. Jordan offer, with its take on how you view the events that occur in your life, is absolutely revolutionary. Look, we’ve got problems today, everyone has problems, and everyone is talking about their circumstances as being the problem. What is being stated here is yes while that may be true, it’s not really the problems in our lives that matter as much as how we deal with them. That may sound obvious, but when it comes to dealing with problems, few now how to separate their emotional entanglement from the real issue and what we see as the problem tends to be the combination of the reality plus the entanglement – which is actually another problem compared to the original one!
I don’t mean to get confusing here, but I’ve seen this happen many times in my own experience and that of others. Lots of reflexive knee-jerk things in our nature, and it takes some deliberate thinking to be able to resolve life’s problems effectively. The tools you offer here are critical to overcome any bad habits we may have acquired through life, if one is to be at peace. Thanks
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You make an excellent point, Ricardo. Life’s daily challenges are far too frequently complicated by both prejudice and reactionary judgments. You see this in every sphere of human activity and it is quite sad, as we could progress much more quickly than we tend were this one tendency corrected.
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No doubt — the world could use some efficiency these days!
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