Failure Is Part of the Process

There’s a Japanese saying:

“If you feel like you’re losing everything, remember, trees lose their leaves every year, yet they still stand tall and wait for better days to come.”

— Reads with Ravi (@readswithravi) July 11, 2026

As night follows day, so failure meets everyone. 

Everyone strikes out. Everyone shanks a ball or hits out. Everyone.

In Moneyball, Billy Beane discussed how his baseball playing career was cut short with inability to handle failure. 

John Wooden, a basketball coaching legend at UCLA with ten championships, won his first in his sixteenth season. 

Sometimes a player struggles at one position and shows excellence at another. Positional change is not failure. It often reflects a better fit. Alyssa DiRaffaele moved to libero from front row and helped get MVB 2011 to the Finals. 

Injury can change career arcs. Injury creates frustration and can require mental and physical adjustment. 

Failure is our companion on life's journey. The Japanese proverb "Fall down seven times, get up eight" serves as a symbol of resilience and perseverance. Success is not defined by the absence of failure, but by the will to rise again. 

Often, the difference between failure and success is the ability to press on.

Lagniappe. Mindfulness is a tool for coping with failure.