Fear is
irrational because of two reasons- firstly, it does not serve any PURPOSE to be
fearful of something; fear, by its insidious nature, weakens the capability of
the person to deal with the thing which he is afraid of. Secondly, fear is
borne out of things whose consequence is UNKNOWN at best - as Socrates points
out that it is irrational to fear death because we really don't know
what follows, I co-relate it with a fear that is ingrained into the impressible
minds of the Indian society - the fear of FAILURE.
"If you FAIL the test, you will not get a good job!"
"If your venture FAILS, your well built career will go down the drain."
Such sentences have been thrown at us since childhood. However, the stark stupidity behind each of these claims is that NOBODY knows what WOULD HAVE happened, had the person failed. Perhaps the person would have discovered something INVALUABLE that success could never teach him. Perhaps not. The point being that YOU DON'T KNOW! So how can anyone, so brazenly, pronounce that you are doomed if you were to fail?
It is apt
to end this small write-up on our renewed understanding about fear & failure by the following quote:
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." - Thomas Edison
