Failure is the foundation for success

Good foundations make solid castles

The Weekly Milestone (11 October 2023)

Social media is a bit of a double edged sword. I live on the other side of the world to my family and friends in the UK so I find social media to be a valuable tool for staying connected with people. I am however very aware that social media can be a bit of a toxic environment for some people.

Zsila and Reyes recently wrote an editorial in BMC Psychology, which discusses the pros and cons of social media on mental health [1]. One of the cons of social media is that it can induce feelings of pressure to compare yourself to others. Social media (especially Facebook and Instagram in my opinion), presents carefully crafted posts that show the poster in a good light. People very rarely show their failures on social media and that can give us the impression that people we follow are living perfect lives, when the reality might be quite different.

We can learn a lot from failure and loss. In this post I’d like to explore this a little.

Failure as a foundation

When I was training at my Wado Ryu Karate dojo in Saga Prefecture there were a few attempts I made at things that ended up falling flat on their face. I didn’t know how long I would be in Saga because I was renewing my work visa every year. I wanted to make sure I got my black belt in Wado Ryu so I was training all the time.

In my dojo you were able to attempt your 1st dan when you were a 2nd kyu brown belt (but you had to be very good in order to pass). I was a 3rd kyu at the time and wanted to attempt to double grade to 1st kyu and then take my shodan at the next grading. I took my colored belt grading and went up to 2nd kyu, then took my first attempt at my shodan anyway (on the advice of my instructor), which of course, I failed.

If I wasn’t good enough to jump from 3rd kyu to 1st kyu then of course I wouldn’t be good enough to go form 2nd kyu to 1st dan. When I asked my instructor about this he said to me:

失敗は成功のもと (Shippai wa seikou no moto)

This phrase can be translated as, “Failure teaches success,” but that isn’t a literal translation and not the translation I prefer. The もと (moto) has a lot of translations including origin, source, root, and foundation. To me, this phrase locked into my mind as:

Failure is the foundation for success

Note: One of my favorite films is Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Swamp Castle is known as the strongest castle in the islands, exactly because it’s the fourth iteration of the castle. The first three iterations sank into the swamp. This reference is probably why this version of the idiom stuck with me.

Image by stablediffusionweb.com. Swamp castle (sai-fantasy art)

My instructor knew that I probably was not going to pass when he sent me in to attempt my grading. I did however get the experience of what the structure of the grading and the knowledge that I would need to improve in all areas if I wanted to pass. (I don’t recall any feedback given as to why I didn’t pass. Just that I didn’t pass and needed to try again).

I kept training, passed my 1st kyu, then eventually passed my shodan about a year later.

Otsuka Sensei using me as an uke after the grading.

Later that year I had a very similar experience with the 全日本空手道連盟 (Zen nihon karate do renmei : All Japan Karate Federation) 1st dan exam. I failed my first attempt but then passed on my second attempt using the knowledge I gained from my first try.

Glorious failure

Bruce Lee has a fantastic quote when it comes to failure:

“Don't fear failure...in great attempts it is glorious even to fail.”

―Bruce Lee

I am a great believer in this approach. If you aim high, show up, and do your best, amazing things happen.

I have a few friends who are ultramarathon runners. One of them is in his mid 60s and is still crushing ultramarathons. After completing a double marathon last year he signed up to a 100km ultramarathon on an island in Nagasaki Prefecture. The island is said to be an island of the gods. He put up a post on social media saying:

神様がいる島なら死に場所に向いている。

”An island where gods are would be a good place to die.”

In 2022 he got to the 60km mark, missed the cut off time and needed to retire from the race. The guts he had to enter this race is incredible. This was an absolutely glorious failure and what is even more amazing is that he is going back to attempt the race again this year. (I am praying for his success).

The long road of the swordsman

I have been training in iaido on and off since around 2010. I passed my 3rd dan 2017. There is a rule in iaido that you need to wait the number of years of your dan grade before you are able to attempt the next level. So you wait 1 year after 1st dan, 2 years after 2nd dan, 3 years after 3rd dan, etc. In 2021 I took my first attempt at my 4th dan and failed. No feedback is given at these gradings so I just went back to the drawing board, tried to improve everything that I could and did my second attempt in the spring of 2022. I failed that time as well. The second failure really crushed me because I still had no idea what I had done wrong.

Failure may be the foundation of success, but only in cases where you are able to learn something from the failure. At first I felt like I hadn’t learned anything. I was unable to attempt the grading again in Autumn 2022 and Spring 2023 due to other commitments I had going on in my life but the time off gave me some time to reflect.

Skill in iaido is not something that can be brute forced. I recently covered this in an article titled, “A sword isn't forged in a day”. You can only show the result of your training. No more. Trying to squeeze out additional potential by ‘trying harder’ is a good way to sabotage your own effort. Following my own advice (and a quote by Miyamoto Musashi), I decided to, ‘Accept everything just the way it is’ and take the grading again based on the result of my training and nothing else.

On October 7th, 2023 I took my third attempt at my 4th dan at Yokohama Budokan in Kanagawa Prefecture. I performed to the best of my ability but without consciously trying any harder than I would during a regular training session. I then went back to the bleachers and waited for the result.

The results of gradings are announced by a judge putting up a list of numbers on a board. If your number is on the board you have passed the practical section. If they aren’t there it’s time to go home. It took a long time for the results to be pinned up and throughout the waiting time I was ready to accept another failure and take another stab at the grading in spring 2024. To my surprise and delight my number (number 4) was on the board.

Note: The number 4 is an unlucky number in Japan. Four can be pronounced as yon or shi, with shi being the same as 死 (shi : death). Good thing I’m not superstitious.

Although I don’t have much of an expression on the picture I was actually really moved. More-so that I would have been if I failed. I may not have been handed a lesson from my first two attempts at the grading but I learned a lot about myself, I learned a lot about accepting everything just the way it is, and I learned that consistency, and perseverance are the best ways to make progress.

Final thoughts

Looking at the lives of others through social media is like watching through a lens. That lens only shows what the poster wants you to see. Like everyone else, I always try to put my best forward on social media. Behind all of the success you see on social media there are a lot of instances of pain and failure that people don’t show to the public. It doesn’t feel good to fail. But as I said in the value of pain:

There are no bad experiences. Only valuable ones.

We shouldn’t be ashamed of failing things. Especially when we attempt something great.

“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars”

―Norman Vincent Peale

I am sometimes more inspired by stories of people that attempt something incredible and fall short than I am by people who seem to crush it every time they try. Rocky is such an inspiring story of an underdog that attempted something incredible that people sometimes forget that Rocky actually lost against Apollo Creed.

Failure really is the foundation of success. If you want to achieve something incredible, you’ve got to be willing to accept that failure may be part of the process. You can’t build the strongest castle in the islands without two or three castles sinking into the swamp first.

Academic Reference:

[1] Zsila Á, Reyes MES. Pros & cons: impacts of social media on mental health. BMC Psychol. 2023 Jul 6;11(1):201. doi: 10.1186/s40359-023-01243-x.

---

Thank you very much for reading. If you enjoy my work please share it with someone you think would also enjoy it.

If you aren’t subscribed, please sign up to keep up to date.

If social media is more your thing I’m active on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

And if you are looking for ways you can support my work please check out the page below:

Osu!

Anthony