When Success Creates a Failed Event

“We read the world wrong and say that it deceives us.” Rabindranath Tagore (Bengali mystic, Nobel Laureate, 1913)

Life is not a linear cause and effect phenomenon. Many times, we weave in through multiple high and low points. An alterate perspective of failed events can occur when they are actually created by a success. For instance, privileged children may have many material possessions as they grow up, experiencing material success without the failure or having earned it, a situation of temporary delusion. McDonald’s began by serving people who sought an infrequent alternative to cooking at home. It was never intended to act as a substitute for standard nutritional needs. However, their overwhelming success is leading people to integrate fast food as a significant part of their diet, resulting in a less healthy, more obese population. Richard Jordan Gatling, who invented the machine gun as a mechanism to save people’s lives by lowering the need for larger armies, instead gave the world a weapon that killed millions of people. There are many cases in which inventions, ideas, and philosophies were met with initial success, only to prove later the old adage that too much of anything can be a detriment, hence producing a failed event. This type of failure helps us to use the event, at times intentionally, as a positive route to achievement. Those who use this ‘trial and error’ model may ultimately exert more time and energy on a path to success. However, if their learning style favors this mode, it should serve them to pursue and understand and generalize the experience to similar events. When these failed events lead to success and the person continues to refine, supplement, collect data and improve upon the success to a point beyond its utility, there may be unanticipated side-effects that turn a success into a failed event.