Michael Goodwin’s thoughts on the loss of the freedom to fail raises a few intriguing ideas. It is true that a person who never tastes failure knows not the real meaning of success. However, many young Americans through the wise guidance of parents, teachers and mentors come to understand that avoiding failure is a path to success in its own right.
In my own life I’ve been plagued by the complacency of talent or slavery of success, if you will. You see, doing well in life came easy for me and so I became lazy in the pursuit of greatness and felt satisfied to rest on my own laurels. Goodwin is right. A sense of entitlement scourges our nation and I, too, am a product of the same lie that tells us that life is easy and we can be anything we want. Cynical? Perhaps. Realistic? Absolutely.
It wasn’t until I moved to the Philippines in high school did I realize how soft the education system in our country was. There I was in a third world country where even college graduates are not guaranteed a job; a situation in 1998 I’d never thought I’d see today in America. Now as I trudge my own path to my degree from community college to the university, many a student sit on my left and right who was not “left behind” in high school staring blankly at the blackboard completely left behind.
There is, though, something to be said for avoiding the opposite extreme. If everyone utterly failed, we could easily fall into deep despair and disappointment. Perhaps Goodwin’s ideas also need a balancing retort. Just as young children need to be protected from oncoming traffic by firmly grasping their hand, so does our immature society need guidance and mentorship towards true freedom. If others have succeeded in the past, why reinvent the wheel in the name of originality and personal achievement? Our immaturity has led us to lose respect for our history and heritage.
This leads to my final point: who defines success anyway? Today it seems we are all taught to chase after the same piece of cheese only to find that we all can’t be CEO’s and we all can’t be millionaires. There was a day when a man could lead a satisfied and happy life simply doing an honest day’s work with a family to go home to. That is not enough for what we consider success these days. The freedom to fail also means not being afraid of doing what really makes us happy.
