Learning to bounce back from defeat

Hi readers, today I would like to blog about a topic that probably strikes close to home, defeat. We will inevitably face defeat in our life, but what is important is how we bounce back from defeat, even stronger.

I got the idea to write about this, because only a few days back, I encountered a minor setback in my school life. I had just received my Integrated Humanities test paper back, and I had expected at least an A2 due to the long hours of studying that I put in. Alas, this was not to be, as I had made a fatal careless mistake which resulted in my results dropping to below my expectations. Needless to say, I was visibly disappointed when I saw my marks, and even more due to the amount of time I put in revising. However, I managed to pick myself up after a while, and convince myself that I would bounce back from this setback and achieve even higher next time.

I am sure many of you have faced setbacks in your life before. Be it attaining poor results not up to your expectations, or screwing up in a certain competition, defeat and setbacks are part and parcel of our lives. In order to properly bounce back from defeat, we must first understand that defeats do not necessarily mean that there is no more hope for us. One defeat does NOT determine our future; we must not be too affected by a single defeat or setback. Likewise, instead of crying over spilled milk, what is important is that we learn from our mistakes, so that we do not make the same mistakes in the future. There is a Chinese saying, "失败是成功之母", which means that failure or defeat is the 'mother' of success, and that to succeed, we have to fail first. This further emphasises my point, as the most important thing about defeat is not the consequences of the setback, but instead, how we manage defeat and bounce back ten times stronger afterwards. Alfred Pennyworth, Batman's butler, once said to Batman when Batman lost all hope, "Why do we fall sir? So that we can pick ourselves up."

Many successful individuals had encountered setbacks in their lives before as well. Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard, but eventually became the owner of Microsoft. Henry Ford's early businesses failed and left him broke FIVE times before he founded the successful Ford Motor Company. Akio Morita's company, Sony, started off as a failure, with its first product, a rice cooker, managing to sell less than 100 units. However, he and his employees worked hard to make Sony the multi-billion dollar company it is today. We can learn from these famous people as well; when they failed, did they sob and give up? No! They learnt from their follies, picked themselves up, and persevered on, eventually managing to succeed in their lives. Likewise, we can learn from their positive attitudes, and treat every defeat as an OPPORTUNITY TO GROW!

I hope that this post has inspired you guys to pick yourself up from defeats and bounce back up even stronger. A strong mentality will guide us through the toughest of storms, and acceptance of defeat is a skill that will last us through our life.

Cheers,
Roystan