Failure Is a Good Thing

From NPR Morning Edition's This I Believe series, a piece by San Francisco Chronicle columnist Jon Carroll:

Morning Edition, October 9, 2006 · Last week, my granddaughter started kindergarten, and, as is conventional, I wished her success. I was lying. What I actually wish for her is failure. I believe in the power of failure.

Success is boring.  Success is proving that you can do something that you already know you can do, or doing something correctly the first time, which can often be a problematical victory. First-time success is usually a fluke.  First-time failure, by contrast, is expected; it is the natural order of things.

Failure is how we learn. I have been told of an African phrase describing a good cook as "she who has broken many pots." If you've spent enough time in the kitchen to have broken a lot of pots, probably you know a fair amount about cooking.

NPR : Failure Is a Good Thing.