There are two broad categories of leadership and personal-development books. One kind tells us how successful people achieved success in the business world. The other consists of self-help books written by people who overcame difficulties and failures earlier in life.
The first group often features highly successful business leaders—people such as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, or the many successful people introduced in FORTUNE magazine. These books teach us how to lead an organization, build a business, and achieve success.
But I have found something very interesting about the second kind of book. Many of the people who write self-help and personal-development books experienced failure during their childhood or youth. Not everyone had such experiences, of course, but many did.
Their failures took many different forms. Some experienced homelessness. Some worked difficult jobs under harsh conditions. Some struggled with poverty or had very little opportunity.
Yet during their breaks or free time, some of them would go to a library and read biographies of famous people. As they read about how those people overcame difficulties and eventually succeeded, they became inspired. Their own difficult experiences became a motivation for growth.
Eventually, some of them not only succeeded but also wrote books about personal development and how to live a better life.
That is why I enjoy reading such books. Books about self-improvement can genuinely help us grow. And I believe that learning how to grow as a person is more important than simply making more money or becoming richer in this world.
In other words, failure became medicine for them in their youth.
Of course, there is no need to invite failure into our lives. But failure will come to all of us in one form or another. What matters is not whether we fail, but how we respond to failure and how we cope with it when it comes.
The first kind of book—the books written by successful business leaders—often teaches us the knowledge and skills needed for success. But the second kind often touches our hearts. The first may show us how to make money; the second may show us how to live wisely.
That is why I believe we can renew and revive ourselves through books about personal development.
But this raises an important question: Should we call people who failed in their youth “failures”?
There is an old saying that we can recognize the fruit from the sprout. Sometimes, people seem to reveal their potential from an early age. But I don’t think life is always like that.
Some people are born as geniuses but eventually live very ordinary lives. Others seem completely ordinary when they are young but later accomplish remarkable things. Sometimes, their abilities simply emerge later in life.
These days, I see many young people making mistakes and experiencing failures. But I think what they need most is encouragement.
They have already experienced enough pain. They have tried, failed, and tried again. I don’t think we, as older people, need to hurt them further by labeling them as failures.
They are thinking about their problems. They are looking for solutions. They are learning through their experiences. Perhaps what they lack is not ability, but simply experience.
And experience takes time.
So, when young people fail, let’s not be too quick to call them failures. Their present failure may become the very experience that shapes their future.
We should remember that failure in youth does not necessarily mean a failed life.
Sometimes, failure is the classroom where wisdom is learned.
Sometimes, failure is the experience that develops character.
And sometimes, failure is the medicine through which a person learns how to live.
A young person who has failed is not necessarily a failure. He or she may simply be a person who is still becoming.