It’s OK to touch defeat

Only if you have tried. The principle of fighting for 10 failures inorder to gain one success point is so0O very powerful but on a true note, a harsh experience too. You will never want to lose whenever you try. So the question is to decide and form a tradeoff matrix. For you, what is important – the final success or a learning experience. Finance & statistians will say wins (or bottomline) whereas HR & Service-operations will say experience. Marketers will say depends on the degree of value augmentation. The mind will enjoy with success while the heart will be contented with a satisfactory experience.

  

Now how to decide on parameters of that matrix. Well there is no shortage for that. Factors will vary - Hard Work, Smart Work or controllable factors whereas some will be dependent like competitions. Specially on a macro-level, the trade-off is between confidence in SWOT analysis and confidence in analysis of external forces (5 forces model, etc).

Now analysis too is a damn subjective thing. Here and then, a factor missed out and flip your analysis from positive to negative. That’s where the team comes in. And team can be strong in skills but moreover, team has to be strong in diversity. Think more, Talk more, Teach more, Trade more – all will fetch a comprehensive answer or atleast points. Well the focus is not on analysis but on the matrix.

So, confidence is set and now lets us put that into quadrants. The fourth quadrant is the place where it gives you that shock. Rock bottom is general rule of failure in this while success is accepted with a pre-competing start to it. It’s like a wave which knows it will culminate in a big way as soon as it starts. The diagonally opposite end is where you learn maximum. You start with a try and end with a superior state. You then move to quadrant above where failure hurts moral and ego. You again are thrown back. The experience in this case is a bit more painful. But the most pain lies in quadrant 3, wherein chance of being lost is high in failure. Because it’s difficult to go back and look into internal faults.  

The idea of the matrix is to figure out why are you disappointed. Is losing a primary condition for it? Or something else can result in same. Is there a role of expectations? Or is it expectations are directly proportional to rewards? Is Shrimad Bhagwad Geeta updesh “to work without expectations” only way to cut out disappointment (incase of a failure)? Is this practical? Even a bit!!

Search! Bing! Google. Answer is within me. Getting a YES/NO feel (wow). Actually the writer is reaching that level with every experience now, where answer can be figured out. It’s again a trade-off between too much thinking on a non-value product (i.e. loss) and a personality SWOT. The instincts are working brilliantly. Nothing seems to be stop. The subjectivity is untangled into a straight line (without directional arrows). Don’t know where it will lead but surely it’s useful.

Something has to conclude (I can fake for the benefit of the reader, if he survives till here) - Participation, Expectations, Fall, Rise, Think, Reward, Awesome are just moments to grow experience i.e. one’s diversity. These will NEVER reflect in your cv, nobody will appreciate EXCEPT you. The idea to hibernate into a blanket and type ferociously within a blackout is to make the world a nice place to live (lose).

Failure is mandatory else you won’t appreciate it

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Hope is obviously a good thing (added for the sake of rhyming)

(writer is a management student. Dangerous breed!)