The plague of all ventures,
And all new adventures,
It steals the joy of the show,
And the pride you held before the fall.

How often do we give up on something that comes easy?
How often do we become bored when we don’t fail?
Don’t you think it’s the true blessing?
Doesn’t it inspire you and prompt you?

When Harriet Tubman went to escape?
Did she say, ‘No I can’t’
Just because she neurological hiccups?
Just because her very dream had a roadblock?

No!
She realized the roadblock,
Was just off to a rough start,
She went after the finished result, not the journey.

Did Clara Barton walk away,
When they told her “No”?
Did she hide away,
When people based her height upon her might?

No!
She walked up to them,
With the grace of a lady,
And fought back against the demons screaming for her to stop.

Did Einstein stop,
When people called him mad,
When they tore down his morals,
Starting with the most important ones?

No!
He kept on going,
Although contained within silence,
He shut out the voices begging him to come out.

Every great leader and every great athlete,
Carries themselves with confidence,
Only because of the grace,
And the failure-induced fire burning within their souls.

Failure gives us the humility to accept that we’re not perfect,
It helps us to throw away the embarrassment which keeps us in our holes,
It urges us forward with that burning sensation,
And the breath of discovery new within our lungs.

Failure doesn’t make you stop,
It doesn’t make you quit,
That’s your own sense of belittlement,
Trying to make you small again.

Failure cannot be explained,
It cannot be contained,
Not even when you plan,
Again and again.

Failure only rears its ugly head,
When you need to try again,
When you haven’t done all you can,
When there’s something else to give again.

To solve it you must work,
You must toil and spin,
You must fight and dig in,
Then begin all over again.

Failure isn’t there to discourage or distress,
Rather, it’s there to remind you and ensure,
That your cause is really worth fighting for,
Whether you can stand the silence then overcome the storm.

Failure cannot be assumed or predicted,
It comes when you don’t realize,
That something is missing from your lackluster efforts,
When something is needed to ensure the real battle inside.

Those little moments of failure,
When you fall and scrape your knee,
They’re the ones that develop a fighting spirit with you,
To overcome the wind when no one hears your plea.

Here’s to the ones,
Who press on when the going gets tough,
Who see the good through the evil before them,
The ones who recognize the light.

So, when you’re faced with a challenge,
When you say that ‘I can’t’,
Know that you can,
You just simply won’t.

So stand up and fight,
Test the worth of your dream,
Test your motives and your actions,
Though impossible it may seem.

Some say that ‘failure is not an option’,
But it truly is,
It an option you have to take,
Whether to accept the failure or not.

I hope that when failure finds you,
You’ll stand tall and smile,
Saying “Thank you,”
For the struggles and the pain.

Thank you my friend,
For helping me see,
A better tomorrow,
Or helping me see what I need to do better.

Thank you for the pain,
The bruises and the sorrow,
The troubles that will assuredly wake me tomorrow,
For the death which is coming my way again...and again...and again.