Winners vs Losers

Be wary of Failures,

   Shrieked the keepers;

 Carve a niche…

And save a stitch

Take a hitch

And you will reach Your grandeur.

It is a fact that society has always looked up to moneyed men and women and the less competent or lucky people, although never held in great esteem, were at least tolerated.

Take the case of Sonali (name changed). Being the eldest among her three siblings, her parents had invested lots of expectations on her. She grew up trying to fulfill all her parents dream and in the process got lost in the plethora of expectations and dreams. Ultimately, she was a failure, having chosen the wrong career. Thus, she was relegated as the proverbial ‘black sheep’ and labeled a nincompoop.

Lack of encouragement, motivation and self-esteem and relentless comparison with others spelt doom for her. Incessant contempt, criticism, jibes and utter disregard made her look for love and happiness elsewhere and she pursued it with a vengeance.She had forgotten that happiness is like a butterfly, the more you chase it, and the further it will fly.

With the changing socio-economic scenario, the non-achievers have been rendered as superfluous oddities, best forgotten. Success and successful people are more visible today, thanks to the media, than before.No wonder, then, that the frustration of people who have not yet made it increase as they inch towards invisibility, knowing that their families are slowly giving up on them.

Don’t you think that it is high time that family members de-stigmatized failure and ‘failures’? Infact, we must redefine ‘failure’. An effective way to do so would be to recognize any failure as temporary and society should stop looking at people as commodities, weighing assets and deficits.