You do not need failure to know success. Likewise, you do not need pain to know pleasure, hate to know love or or darkness to know light. That said, both are available in abundance in the world we live in today, so learning to navigate both with dignity, balance and vision is of the utmost importance.
If you hew to your highest standard – whatever that might be for the moment – you are a success. Every time you rise to the challenge and present your finest, regardless of how much or how little you like the nature of the circumstances at hand, you progress and grow. When you accomplish an outer goal as a result of a shortcut or a compromise in your integrity, you will find that the victory is hollow and very likely devoid of the deep sense of comfort that fills the breast of he who achieves through honest and true work.
Raise your standard today and enjoy the perspective that comes naturally and quickly. See your own failures and the failures of those around you as the seeds for a future victory. Take heart in nature’s forgiveness and life’s regenerative ways. Both are always present, no matter how badly you may feel about yourself, others or life itself.
“If we think of any supreme moment of our lives, any great success, anyone who is dear to us, and then consider how we reached that moment, that success, that friend, we will be surprised and strengthened by the revelation. As we trace each one, back, step by step, through the genealogy of circumstances, we will see how logical has been the course of our joy and success, from sorrow and failure, and that what gives us most happiness today is inextricably connected with what once caused us sorrow. Many of the rivers of our greatest prosperity and growth have had their source and their trickling increase into volume among the dark, gloomy recesses of our failure.
There is no honest and true work, carried along with constant and sincere purpose that ever really fails. If it sometime seem to be wasted effort, it will prove to us a new lesson of “how” to walk; the secret of our failures will prove to us the inspiration of possible successes. Man living with the highest aims, ever as best he can, in continuous harmony with them, is a success, no matter what statistics of failure a near-sighted and half-blind world of critics and commentators may lay at his door.
High ideals, noble efforts will make seeming failures but trifles, they need not dishearten us; they should prove sources of new strength. The rocky way may prove safer than the slippery path of smoothness. Birds cannot fly best with the wind but against it; ships do not progress in calm, when the sails flap idly against the unstrained masts.
The alchemy of Nature, superior to that of the Paracelsians, constantly transmutes the baser metals of failure into the later pure gold of higher success, if the mind of the worker be kept true, constant and untiring in the service, and he have that sublime courage that defies fate to its worst while he does his best.” ~ William George Jordan
Gregory Hake 
The juxtapositions of failure & success, light & dark, pleasure & pain is an interesting point. Each is something on it’s own. It would seem that each can hold future promise depending on how we utilize it when it comes along. The power is not in what happens to us. The force that should empower us is that difficult to describe strengh & peace, that arises though us, when we keep our compass true to the omniscient direction.
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Failures come in many forms, usually springing from a hybrid set of causes. We are all touched by our own failures and those of others, and there seems to be no limit to the concern and ability to rationalize almost any failure. Blaming, despondency, glorification – any and all of the above may appear with dizzying quickness, and any and all can destroy the practical starting points that are presented in such case. What are our starting points and what can we learn to maximize the advantage of the situation as it now is? These would seem to be the points of helpful emphasis!
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Excellent point! Rationalizing failure is a dangerous business, while rationally assessing what can be done in light of the failure is the first step to a more stable foundation in living. Thanks for your comment…
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Jordan talks about “the mind of the worker” at the end of this quote. It is amazing to me, how much of being a failure or success plays out in the mind. One persons tremendous achievement is another persons normal experience or may leave someone else feeling they missed the mark completely.
I think the emphasis and constant are our ideals. When that is crystal clear to us and we uphold them regardless of the journey and result, we know fulfillment and the joy of living for our life’s work.
This is a vital point to understand if we want to be a confident, self assured person.
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Comparison is rarely helpful unless it is in relation to your own personal highest and finest expression. Far too many people excuse themselves from raising their own standard for fear of never being as good as so-and-so or never being able to live up to so-and-so’s expectations. Excuses, really and completely beside the point!
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In investing my highest and finest in every situation today, am I assured that the outcomes will be as expected? No, but I am assured of what you described as a “deep sense of comfort” which brings with it a sense of well-being in the midst of anything. I’ll take that any day. Thanks.
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Great point!
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You never know how your highest and finest will be received by others, in fact, it may be rejected outright more often than not. That said, you can be assured that you will rest easy at the end of the day knowing that you gave it your personal best!
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“There is no honest and true work, carried along with constant and sincere purpose that ever really fails”. This statement is a truth that I wish more people realized. If they did, it would free them from having to worry about the outcomes of their work. What people need to make sure is that they are ensuring their works are honest, true, and carried along with constant and sincere purpose. If any of these are missing, the outcome is irrelevant anyways.
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Agreed. Excellent observation, Colin!
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The world through these lens would forever be made a newer better world under the stewardship of its enlightened caretakers. This is the kind of world I personally want to live in, where honesty is respected along with a profound sense of reverence for each other and all else that lives where it would be unthinkable to mislead and exploit for personal gain. It may sound idealistic and utopian, but the thing is that you can live with yourself this way, you gain this grounding that effectively allows you to deal with the tension that is all around, shielding you from its potential damage while at the same time allowing you to be of good help in case you are close enough to do something about it.
So many gems here, and one that stands to me is that we have rise above our likes and dislikes, and simply do the right thing. The right thing takes alot of wisdom for it to be clear to you, but I suppose just wanting to do the right thing at least opens the door. Great stuff here!
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A simple suggestion, but with profound implications! Thanks for your insightful comment, Ricardo.
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Thanks for these daily gems of insight, Gregg!
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My pleasure, DeeDee.
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Just catching up on this series. William George Jordan’s work was a great find.
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I feel like a kid who just found a treasure chest in his sand box! Jordan’s understanding of uncommon living bears analysis, observation and experimentation!
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The tangibility and fullness of success and the void of failure are so apparent through these words. What can sometimes seem so painful of perceived failure is merely the result of a lack of high standards. When those are in place the way is open for success. So I accept the challenge to raise my standard today! Have a great day!
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Very enlightening, thanks!
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Your welcome, Mark.
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This series is great!
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Thank you, Kam.
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