Success is that destination that many of do not reach. Is that why we celebrate successful people and want to learn from them? I meet so many of them in conferences talking about their secrets of success. Many of them also talk about their struggles. Successful film stars talk about the days when they struggled as aspiring actors. Many quote Thomas Edison who had tried almost 10,000 variants before he created the light bulb that worked. He said, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

Failure is liberating, success shackles

I had once been invited to celebrate a colleague's "quitting party". I presumed it was her victory over tobacco that she was celebrating only to learn that she had decided to quit her job. I knew she was very successful having won the top performer award for two years in a row. She explained that her success prevented her from being bold and dissuaded her from continuing to experiment - just what had made her a top performer.

She told me, "In the first year, I really created something unique. I had no benchmark to match. What I did was fresh and uninhibited. After winning the best performer award, I felt constrained. I felt compelled to succeed. So I simply did more of the same. I felt shackled to my success. Now that I have won this award two years in a row, I will never be able to do anything radical. I will be too scared that I will fail. Failure is liberating. I want to have that independence."

Failure is temporary

Conferences only invite successful people to talk about their failure after they have succeeded. People gush about Steve Jobs having failed and meandered his way to success. Nobody quoted Steve Jobs when he was viewed as a failure. Steve Jobs succeeded because he did not stop to moan when he failed. He continued to execute one great idea after another. He did not stop even when he succeeded. He built iTunes, iPhone, iPad and just carried on working till the last day. He did not stop to grieve when he failed. He did not pause when he succeeded. Success and failure were by products of his continuous experimentation.

Bollywood composer RD Burman continues to inspire contemporary listeners with songs that he composed decades back. The music he composed in the seventies and early eighties was unparalleled. Then came a fallow decade from the mid-eighties to the early nineties when he just could do nothing right. When he composed music for his last film - 1942 A Love Story, his confidence was at its lowest having spent a decade without a hit. He viewed himself as a failure when he died in Jan '94. When we look at defining someone as a success or failure, it is simply defining where the person paused to take stock.

Look at failure (and success) from a longer time frame

Look at the ranking of the top ten companies in the Fortune 500 list. Then compare it with the list over the last few years. You will find that some companies that were among the most successful in the world have either disappeared or withered away. Many have been dislodged from their rankings. So when viewed over time success and failure look different.

In conclusion

Carol Dweck talks about two kinds of mindsets - fixed mindset and a growth mindset. Those who have a fixed mindset believe that their basic qualities, like intelligence and talent are simply fixed traits. What they are born with cannot be changed.

Those with growth mindsets believe that intelligence and talent can be grown and developed. Hard work combined with resilience drives success. They will not get fazed by setbacks. They don't get awestruck by success. They just focus on the unconquered road ahead. That is how failure has to be celebrated.

- Abhijit Bhaduri, Chief Learning Officer - Wipro
Follow Abhijit on Twitter @AbhijitBhaduri
Website: http://www.abhijitbhaduri.com