MONDAY MUSINGS SEASON 2 - EPISODE 309
14th April 2025
#FearOfFailure
Lord Krishna to Arjun “If you fight, you will either be slain on the battlefield and go to the swarga (heaven), or you will gain victory and enjoy the kingdom on earth. Therefore, arise with determination, O son of Kunti, and be prepared to fight”. (Bhagavad Gita 2.37)
‘I win or I learn, either way I gain. No reason to be afraid of failure”’ Jaganathan
Why are we afraid of failure?
There are various reasons we may fear failure. Perhaps the most common is that our self-esteem tends to be tied to achievement and success.
When we fail at something — be that in competing for a new order from a customer, a competitive examination, tough tournament, tough targets, a new project, tough customer, etc. We may feel worthless, and we may harshly castigate ourselves for our failure.
If we fail publicly, our failure plainly visible to others, we may also fear other people’s judgment and that our failure may have wider social repercussions.
It is quite common to fear failure, the issue though is that this fear has the potential to hold us back (apt cover diagram). It may prevent us from seeking new experiences, venturing into the unknown, or taking risks of any kind. It may lead us to staying in situations that do not make us happy and that are not conducive to long-term growth.
Fear of failure can cause procrastination, avoidance, and stagnation. It can adversely impact our wellbeing. Extreme fear of failure is called #atychiphobia, and it severely affects the ability of sufferers to function well in daily life
It can cause panic attacks and excessive ruminative anticipation of situations that trigger this fear response.
While this truly debilitating fear of failure is quite rare, a less pronounced and more subtle fear of failure is much more common. However, even in its less extreme form, fear of failure can have seriously adverse effects on wellbeing.
Fear of failure may manifest as Negative beliefs about our agency and efficacy, Pessimism, Helplessness, Hopelessness, Low self-esteem, Negative self-talk and negative affect, in particular shame and embarrassment
How to overcome the fear of failure be overcome? Here are five techniques:
1. Look at your mindset — your attitudes about failing. Reminding yourself that there is no growth without failure — no learning, no development, no new experiences — can help you see your aversion in a new light. Cultivate growth mindset, an openness to learning from failure in the service of overall development.
2. Start by gently building your failure muscle in a safe space. Try to learn a new skill or hobby — a sport, cooking, dancing, drawing, playing an instrument — and be kind to yourself in the learning process. Mindfully allow yourself to fail, to try again, to fail again but better, and try again, until you get somewhere.
3. Recall gritty successful people who failed a hundred, or maybe even a thousand times, before they got somewhere with their attempts. Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb, for example, is famous for having said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
4. Watch how a toddler learns to walk. They do not study a “how to walk upright” manual. Instead, they learn by doing and, especially, by failing. They stand up, stumble, fall, stand up, stumble, fall, and stand up again, over and over again, until they learn to stand, then to walk, and then how to run.
5. Simply start seeing your failures as teachers. Instead of indulging in self-recrimination and feeling sorry for yourself when you fail, ask yourself: What can I learn from this experience? What can I do better next time? What is the lesson here? And remember: While it is hard to fail, it is much worse never to have tried to succeed.
There is a sixth and most effective technique which is what Lord Krisha advised Arjun. This is not there in any of the books and articles I read. That is
6. Don’t ever think about the result. Keep making efforts as making efforts is your duty. Get into the work with determination with the thinking that the work will eventually benefit you, whichever way the result would go. That is a definite way of overcoming ‘fear of failure’.
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#PositiveNewsPage
I learnt about a great personality last week whose life and achievements is a great ‘role model’ for many of our youngsters. This week’s positive role model’s life coincides with the topic for this episode, a man who took failures in his stride and never faced ‘fear of failure’. An industrialist who strongly believed and demonstrated:
“Leave this world better than you found it!”
This simple affable industrialist whose down-to-earth ideas revolutionized global sustainable agriculture and transformed the lives of millions of farmers, associates, stakeholders and the society at large is #BhavarlalJain, affectionately known as Bhau to millions of his friends and admirers.
Bhavarlal Jain, Founder Chairman of #JainIrrigationSystemsLimited (Indian multinational with 30 manufacturing plants worldwide, 10,500+ associates and a revenue of over billion dollars) passed away on 25th February, 2016, at the age of 79. He was a man of many facets – farmer, businessman, social activist, environmentalist, writer, public speaker and a beloved friend and mentor to many.
Bhau was born in a farming family in Wakod village of Jalgaon district of Maharashtra. Despite hardships, he remained optimistic till the very end of his eventful life. Bhau’s impressive rise from a student struggling to read under the only lamp in the village square, to spurning a government job and starting his own small business of selling kerosene on a bicycle, is now part of a legend. His journey was never smooth, but adversity was his great teacher. He failed in his initial attempts at entrepreneurship but never lost hope. He learnt from his mistakes, adapted to changing business realities and evolved with time. But throughout his journey, he was guided by his vision to bring real and fundamental differences in the lives of farmers and the community. He took challenges in his stride and founded the world’s second largest drip irrigation company, #JainIrrigationSystemsLtd. (JISL).
Bhau won 51 national and international awards in his lifetime including the prestigious UNESCO West-Net ‘Water Conserver of India’ & Padma Shri awards. The North Maharashtra University awarded him the degree of Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa) for ‘Remarkable achievements in the field of agriculture, industry and social work’. Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Rajasthan awarded him the degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) for distinguished services to the nation by putting up research projects and drip irrigation projects, benefiting millions of people. Konkan Krishi Vidhyapeeth, Maharashtra also bestowed on him the degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) for ‘Significant Contribution in the field of Agriculture, Horticulture, Micro-irrigation & Water Conservation’. In 2012, Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd., was awarded ‘The Good Company Award’ by Forbes for changing the lives of millions of farmers with its modern drip irrigation systems. He also received the Crawford Reid Memorial Award for promoting proper irrigation techniques, which has been given to only two Asians till date.
His contribution to India’s agriculture is legendary. He introduced the concept of drip irrigation in India in 1989. To increase the income of farmers while attaining business growth, Bhau forayed into the food processing sector. The concept of contract farming which Bhau introduced turned out to be a successful venture for farmers and secured higher-than-market prices for them.
In the arid region of Khandesh, Bhau’s work on watershed management, rainwater harvesting and conservation is a significant milestone in the history of agriculture. Under his leadership was built the #KantaiDam on the Girna River near Jalgaon in Maharashtra. It is built as a public-private partnership and is a shining example of its kind. Bhau set up an Agri Institute at Jain Hills. The institute has a large number of agronomists and doctorates in the private sector, who train farmers across the world on latest farming methods. Besides, he established one of India’s leading bio-tech labs that conducts research in various fields of agriculture. These institutions have been instrumental in making possible some of the most impactful agricultural
His management style was also unique; he gave a patient ear to every stakeholder. He believed every voice needed to be heard. He was always keen to foray into emerging businesses and adopt new technologies. He was particularly interested in those ventures that had a social impact and affected the disadvantaged sections of society. At the same time, he never compromised on the quality of products.
A case study on JISL by the Harvard Business School is a part of their graduate programme. Forbes International USA hailed JISL as the only Indian company in the top 50 most influential companies of the world.
Bhau believed innovative ideas could bring societal change. Bhau founded the Anubhuti English Medium School for underprivileged children. The school provides free education, books, wholesome meals and other necessities to hundreds of bright youngsters. Bhau also established the #GandhiResearchFoundation (GRF), a monument in the memory of Mahatma Gandhi who greatly influenced his life.
Bhau believed that we must endeavour to establish and maintain optimal, self-perpetuating and self-upgrading equilibrium between natural resources and human & animal life. Bhau also transformed Jain Hills and its environs into a fertile green paradise, planting millions of trees and energising the combat against climate change.
Bhau was a man of ideas and profound experience, which he passionately loved to share with the world. His rich knowledge and eloquence on various subjects made him a much sought after public speaker - nationally and internationally.
Being a prolific writer, Bhau wrote several books in English and Marathi. His book, ‘#ATellingTale’ is based on his learnings and the experiments he conducted in watershed management. ‘Tee aani Mee’, (#SheAndMe) published in Marathi, Hindi and English is an autobiographical account of his life with his wife which gives an underlying message to society.
Born into a Jain family, Bhau was well acquainted with the virtues of Ahimsa, Brahmacharya, Aparigraha and Anekanth Siddhant (Concept of non-violence, celibacy, non-possessiveness and nothing is permanent). These virtues were further reinforced when he read about Gandhiji’s philosophy of Sarvodaya and its inspiration ‘Unto This Last’ by John Ruskin. They helped him understand what great souls meant by ‘non-violent living’ or ‘life based on truth’; that is ‘the life of a tiller and craftsman is the life worth living’. By dedicating his life to agriculture, he became an ardent Sarvodaya practitioner in modern times.
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Conceived, compiled and posted as a weekly positive newsletter #MondayMusings in #Linkedin by Jaganathan T (www.authorjaganathan.com)
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