Importance of Failure

I am reminded of the Rich Dad-Poor Dad quote: “Most people are not rich because they are terrified of losing. I have never met a rich person who has never lost money, but have met a lot of poor people who have never lost a dime.”
In a culture so unforgiving of failure, we often force-fit people into path of mediocrity. Mediocre are insipid and are never able to realize their dreams, their full potential. As a culture, we are so obsessed with not failing, we end up not trying… and hence not achieving.
What is important is to try hard so that never again in life you regret the fact that you failed because you did not try enough. However don’t get obsessed with anything. Failure is a part of life and try to learn from it so that you don’t repeat the same mistakes again.
Frank Mondo’s famous theory of PIE (Perfomance, Image & Exposure) has recently caught my imagination. Essentially it means that there has never been a successful sales-person who has never been fired from his job. There has not been any inventor who has not had a string of failures. What is important is “Exposure”, what is it that you have experienced, learned from your past and how can you apply these learnings in your next venture.