THE RIGHT TO FAIL

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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights has 30 articles dealing with every right you can think of except the one we all need most. Article 1 declares that we are all born free and equal. But everyone knows that is just on the paper. No one is free and we are not equal. Article 4 deals expressly with the issue of slavery. “No one shall be a slave…” It’s an ideal that we should all push towards. But do you know there will always be slaves?
So what is the right that we most need that is not provided for in the Declaration?
Every human being has an inherent and inalienable right to fail.
Drop the pretence. Who hasn’t failed before? Why do we treat failure with such contempt as if it was illegal to fail? Funny enough the greatest victories often come from the biggest failures.
Zane Grey became a dentist and hated it. He wrote several novels. They failed. He wrote a western novel, “The Last of the Plainsmen”. That too was rejected. He was told he had no future as a writer and to give it up. He persisted and was 40 before his first book sold. He had 65 books published while he was alive—24 after he died. His books sold more than 50 million copies. Forty-nine of his novels were made into movies. One million of his books still sell every year. He exercised his right to fail.
Decca Recording Company turned down The Beatles in 1962. They said, "We don't like their sound. Groups of guitarists are on the way out." After that rejection, The Beatles became the best-selling band in the history of popular music, and four decades after their break-up, their recordings are still in demand. They have had more number one albums on the UK charts and have held the top spot longer than any other musical act. They have received 7 Grammy Awards from the American National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. They exercised their right to be called failures.
Van Gogh sold only one painting in his entire lifetime and that one was of his own brother! The price of that painting was a meager $1600. Today, seven of his works are amongst the most expensive artworks ever bought  totaling about $670 million! In his lifetime he was seen as a failure (it drove him to commit suicide) but imagine the worth of his work after death! Success looks like failure when its time has not come!
Richard Hooker spent 17 years writing a humorous war story which was rejected by 21 publishers before William Morrow bought it. The title of the book? MASH! Ultimately, however, the book proved amazingly successful. The novel inspired an Academy Award-winning film released in 1970 and a widely popular television series that lasted eleven seasons! He too exercised his right to fail.
Walt Disney went broke seven times and had a nervous breakdown before becoming successful.  Certainly you have heard of Abraham Lincoln and how he was defeated in several elections  before he could become the President of America. And what a successful president he was! 

What of Thomas Edison (with his legendary failure in the quest for a workable electric bulb) or Winston Churchill (Britain’s wartime leader) who struggled in school with spelling or Albert Einstein (the popular scientist) whose teachers felt could not amount to much, or  Ben Carson (the world’s most celebrated neuro-surgeon) whose teacher once described as the dumbest student in the world? You are in good company if you have failed.

Exercise your right! Refuse to be intimidated by people or circumstances. Refuse to give up just because someone believes you are a failure. Just because your projections didn’t quite materialize does not make you a failure. But don’t just fail blindly. Pick something up with each failure. Keep your eyes open. Call it purposeful failure.

Success dwells on the far side of failure, not on the opposite side. If you really want to succeed that badly, then know that you will have to walk through what a lot of people call failure boulevard. If you don’t stop, if you keep your focus, and exercise your basic human right to fail – then you will wake up one morning to the beautiful music of success. This is as true for corporate organizations as it is for individuals. And today could be that day for all you know.
Until next week, stay true to yourself and your customers and remember, great service happens in the moment, moment by moment.