Response to Michael Goodwin on the loss of the freedom to fail

The two dichotomies, failure and success, illustrate that individuals have a choice in selecting the state of being in which they will be content. As a child, my parents embedded the cliché “if at first you don’t succeed, try and try again” in my mind. The lesson they were trying to instill is to not give up on goals. At the moment of failure, individuals have the ability to redirect “the lack of” mentality into positive strategies to eliminate chances of repeating the processes/steps that lead to a failed outcome. Based on the law of attraction theory, an affirmative thought is 100 times more productive than a negative thought. With the premise that there are steps or processes that lead to an event, it is often an anomaly in the process and not the actual end result that fails. For instance in 1961 during the Bay of Pigs invasion, President J.F. Kennedy acted on the advice of one group of experts (the CIA) without evaluating alternate advice from other agencies. As a result, the U.S. was unsuccessful in the attempt to overthrow the Castro regime. However, President Kennedy did not let that failed attempt deter other efforts. Instead, he re-evaluated his strategies and incorporated the use of cabinet members as “devil’s advocates” to probe for gaps and weaknesses in warfare plans. Taking a step back from a failed event offers an opportunity to identify areas of improvement that can make future attempts more successful. In the same instance, parents must allow babies to go through the process of learning to walk. Without the experience of stumbles and tumbles, a baby would not be stable and confident in their ability to properly balance themselves and progress in forward movement. Therefore, we must allow failures to take place in order to grow into self sufficient individuals as part of life’s journey.