"DARE TO FAIL "

            Last Monday, I went at Robinson’s Place Manila with my friend Micchy (actually I prefer calling her “Stargirl”). We both love reading books and going to bookstores. So, we decided to have a book peaking at National Bookstore.

            We roamed around the bookstore then suddenly we saw this book entitled “Dare to Fail” by Billi Lim. Stargirl told me that she and her friend love dare to fail books. She told me about the books and how this book can encourage you to try failing. I wonder how this can help you but Stargirl told me her friend always read this book every time she is down or got a problem.

            Because I got this probability of buying books especially if someone recommends the book, I got the book and I said I’ll read it. She also said that I can even finish reading the book for twenty minutes. The truth is that I’m not fun of reading to do books but I always think some self help books can help or can make you frustrated. But that day I said to myself that “Hey, maybe it can help….”

            After our walk at the mall, I went home. I got bored because of the traffic and the long road before reaching Gateway, Cubao. So I open the book “Dare to Fail from A to Z”.  The book composed of 26 advices how to handle failure from A to Z. Each alphabet corresponds to advice that can make or break you. Well, I prefer it to make me a better person after reading it. I read for almost half of the trip because like Stargirl said you can really read it for about twenty minutes or less.

I almost can’t put the book down. It struck me from A to Z. Who would have thought that encouragement can come in a simple package, in a small cost and in a short time? Billi Lim encourages you treat failure as a path to success. To cherish the bitterness of failure that hones us to the success we dream off. I realize that day that I need to do something even this can cause me to fail over and over and over again.

After twenty minutes of reading the Dare to Fail Book, these are the words that I want to emphasize and that struck me to love the book:

·                          “Conquer your fears through action. You don’t know what you can’t do until you do it”

-         I really fear rejection, criticism and also insult. I fear that I’m a failure or I can’t get the work done or I’m not the best. But those are just fears that I made in my mind that hold me back to do the best in me. If I don’t conquer my fears, I would live my life with the word IF.

·                           “Detach yourself. When something fails, it’s the event that fails, not you”

-         I’m really attached to work, that when I fail I regret it a lot. I always blame myself and sometimes it made my day awful. Those negative things sink in my mind that made me commit more failure. Failure hunts you down until in the point that you don’t want to try anymore. But should failure define who you are? NO.

·                          “God must have loved failures, otherwise why are there more failure than successful people”

-         When I fail, I always close my eyes and pray. We all do that but in times of success, where are we? Maybe God really has a purpose why we failed often. And before finding the true purpose I need to pray more, not to achieve success in instant but to carry the failure in a positive way. Now I want to say that “success is sweeter after a bitter failure”.

·                          “Learn from the failure of others and laugh at our own”

-         It is one of the difficult advices I read in the book. I ask myself, how I can laugh at my own failures. Failing is a hard one and laughing can be the hardest part. But I realize that it is not being a martyr but this can help you to learn from those painful experiences and moving on. And I remember the saying “when you laugh, the people laugh with you but if you cry, you cry alone”.

·                          Quitter never wins. Winners never quit. People don’t fail they quit.

-         I remember this saying at the Taekwondo gym I enrolled back when I was in high school. This saying struck me every time I see the painted wall of the gym. With every punch and kick I gave when I was young and those blocks I need to smash I realize that even there are hardship learning taekwondo quitting was never an option. Quitting let’s you fail not failing let’s you quit.

·                          “You and I are responsible for our failures and successes, nobody else”

-         I love finger pointing. I don’t want blaming only myself, I also blame others. I find ways to blame them. That was before, but now I realize that I’m the only responsible of all the things happening in my life. And because of this realization I want to say sorry to my Mother.

This book is an eye opener of the things I already know but I’m blinded by those failures in the way. I recommend this book to all who are depressed and to those who want to commit suicide. Please buy first this book, read and think before trying to end your life.

This book is also my inspiration in doing this blog. I believe that even though I’m a newbie in blogging, sharing my crazy little ideas can help the world. I may not be a good writer but every opinion matters. And I want it to start today to succeed and to fail. What will I lose if I try? NOTHING.