Success and Failure
Although I have some fairly notable accomplishments from my business life to look back upon and for which I can be proud. I know that nothing in my previous business life comes close to that which I accomplished in the writing of my first novel, The Sower’s Seeds.
Even so, about a year after the novel was published I became discouraged when the great American novel of my dreams did not receive the national and international acclaim that I thought it deserved.
Although during that first year period I had managed to get a significant review about my novel in the Indiana University Alumni Magazine, I had failed to win either the Pulitizer Prize or the Hemmingway award.
Oh, my naivety. I can only look back now and laugh.
Anyway, I began to doubt myself. And with that doubt I began to let what I knew was my greatest success turn into my greatest failure.
As a writer I have learned that it can be fun to look up common words in the dictionary even if I think I know their definition. This morning when I looked up success in my trusty Random House College Dictionary I read that success was the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors. Failure I read was simply defined as a lack of success.
As a part time philosopher and student of mathematics, I have learned the importance of logical thought and the proper use of the conjunctive terms “and” and “or”. Note in the above definition of success the conjunctive term “or” is used between the adjectives (favorable, prosperous).
Was there a prosperous termination in my attempt to write the great American novel of my dreams? The answer to that question is a resounding NO! In fact, I lost money in my effort.
Was there a favorable termination in my endeavor to write the great American novel of my dreams? The answer to that question is a resounding YES! My novel turned out to be better than I ever dreamt that it was going to be, and I always dreamt it was going to be very, very good.
Now knowing that I need to answer only one of the above questions with a YES to satisfy the definition of success, I have no other choice but to claim success for my novel.
And this lesson learned is an important one. Never will I ever begin to let another of my successes turn into a failure, especially when it does not properly fit the definition.
Onward and upward we move ahead.