8. Nothing Succeeds Like Failure, Nothing Fails Like Success

“It is impossible to generate a few good ideas without a lot of bad ideas. Failure should be forgiven and forgotten quickly,” says Premji. If we encounter failure along the way, we should treat it as a natural phenomenon and not beat ourselves or any one else for that matter. In fact, as the following story illustrates, we could look at failures or pitfalls as the stepping stones to success.

One day a farmer’s donkey fell into a well. It cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally, he decided the animal was old and the well needed to be covered up anyway. So he, along with his neighbors, grabbed a shovel each and began to shovel dirt into the well. On realizing the motive behind the act, the donkey initially cried more loudly and then, to everyone’s amazement, quietened down. A few shovel loads later, the farmer curiously looked down the well and came away astonished.

With every shovel of dirt that fell on his back, the donkey would shake it off and take a step up. As the farmer’s neighbors continued to shovel dirt on the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, it stepped over the edge of the well and tottered away.

“Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt,” says Premji. “The trick is not to get bogged down by it. We can get out of the deepest wells by not stopping. Shake it off and take a step up!”

Even while practicing the shake off and step up act, we ought not to let success get into our heads. In other words, retention of humility is a must. He narrates another story to elucidate its importance.

A lady and her husband, both dressed in faded clothes, walked in without an appointment into the office of the President of the most prestigious educational institution in America. After waiting for hours, they were allowed to meet the President who glared sternly at them. The lady said, “Our son, who studied here was killed in an accident a year ago.” She expressed her desire of erecting a building in memory of her deceased son in the University campus.

“A building?” exclaimed the President, looking at their worn out clothes. Convinced that they did not have the means to erect a memorial, he said, “Do you have any idea that our buildings cost close to ten million dollars?’’ With that, the President thought he’d get rid of them.

The lady looked at her husband calmly. “If that is what it costs to start a university, why don’t we start our own?” she queried. Her husband nodded. Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford walked away, traveling to Palo Alto, California, where they established a University as a memorial to their son, bearing their name - the Stanford University.

As this story shows, the moment we allow success to build a feeling of arrogance, we become vulnerable to making bad judgments.