Life lessons learned by overcoming failure

The lesson to be learned is that in order to succeed on or off the field, we all need to adapt, persevere and embrace the power of failure.

by Joseph Sutton — 

Failure can teach a person life lessons. My son and I learned two important lessons from our days as athletes.

One day in high school I got hit in the head by a pitch in batting practice. That tragic incident happened before batting helmets were used. The very next day, because I was terrified of every pitch, I struck out five times. My baseball career was over. But I did not mope or feel sorry for myself; I shifted my energy and athletic ability to running track instead. As a result, I became one of the fastest sprinters in Los Angeles my senior year.

When my son sustained a major knee injury while playing high school baseball, he immediately transferred his interest and passion to hip-hop music and later became a producer of hip-hop albums. Today, that injury stands as a cornerstone of his counseling philosophy to help teenagers find their passion in life.

The lesson to be learned is that in order to succeed on or off the field, we all need to adapt, persevere and embrace the power of failure.

This never-say-die attitude helped me to inspire my students in South Central Los Angeles. I had them take charge of their own destiny by letting them teach the class themselves, and it helped me maneuver through the ups and downs of being a parent and a coach.

It also assisted me later in life as a writer. For more than 20 years, all I received were rejections. Despite those disappointments, never giving up on something I loved to do led to a publisher accepting my fourth book, and subsequently nine more after that.

Failure can teach many life lessons. To adapt as a result of an unfortunate incident or to persevere at something you love can lead to success, despite of failure and/or because of it.

Joseph Sutton is the author of 10 books, one of which has been endorsed by a Pulitzer Prize winner. www.joesutt.com.

Reprinted from AzNetNews, Volume 32, Number 4, August/September 2013.