• To Err Is Human: Why Failure Is The Only Way To Succeed Quote
• To Err Is Human: Why Failure Is The Only Way To Succeed Quotes

It was not the Marxist ideal in communism that was in error, really. It was that communism was compelled, rather than voluntary. Sometimes a sympathizer with classical Marxist ideology will write to me expounding on the compassionate and generous instincts that he believes are at the heart of Marxism, and reminding me that the Acts of the Apostles describes “wealth distribution” as a social good.

All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one’s need. (Acts 2:44-45)

If Marxism has failed to make manifest the gloriously free and prosperous (or at least materially comfortable) society that it has long-promised”and the more honest debaters will admit that it has failed to produce either liberty or prosperity, wherever it has been tried”the failure, my correspondents argue, has been one of application. If only the right sort of people were charged with implementing Marx’s ideas, the theory would prove itself remarkably successful, just as it was for the Apostles.
Well, I agree. But I hasten to point out that the operative words in these verses are “right sort.” The believers freely gave up their properties for the good of the whole community. Non-believers were not compelled to participate; they were left to their own affairs.
I doubt our modern-day exponents of Marxist theory would be amenable to the idea that the Apostolic counterparts to Peter, John, and James would be the right kind of leaders for their distributive endeavor. My correspondents believe that they, themselves, are just the right sort of people to empower with the task of obliterating hunger, poverty, and war, and they would do it without forcing people to submit to what one correspondent has called the “endless ‘no’” of the church.
In good faith, allow me to suggest that the only “right sort” people to entrust with an idea as radical as Marx’s are those who possess a spirit or intellect generous enough to acknowledge the workings of grace, those able to recognize that only something greater than man”call it the Holy Spirit”can induce an instinct voluntarily to enter into a communal life. Absent that, the practice will fail.
Communism, attempted without the infinite capacity and infinite hope that comes from working with and for the infinite God, becomes a mere movement of man, consistent with the nature of man, which is imperfect, selfish, and self-rewarding.
The failed Marxist experiments involved human schemes to prohibit “anti-social behavior” and enforce codified “kindness” supported by informants and intimidation; they enforced a spirit-killing, drive-killing acquiescence but offered no hope for real communism. Action compelled by government can never transcend itself, because the person has nothing to draw on from within, or look to from without.
Without the Holy Spirit prompting the human soul toward the willing surrender of goods and gifts”not for the good of “the state” or “the party” or for some general idea about feckless and unwieldy humanity, but for the sole use of God and the service of his glory”the compelled surrender of humankind serves only to frighten, to inhibit, to shackle and bind, rather than to loosen or free. It feeds the instinct to hoard, rather than hand out. It creates the Gulag.
The state, man-made, cannot embody the greatness the communist promises. All states, all governments, eventually evolve into some Democratic-and-quasi-Capitalist amalgam or they collapse beneath the weight of corruption, for no human being is all-good, and where humanity “may” fail, it eventually will.
Even the church, guided and sustained by the Holy Spirit, has been rocked by the reality of the unavoidable and constant truth that man is broken and in need of salvation.
But it is only by way of the church, in service to the God who instituted her, that anything approaching a Classical Marxist ideal can ever succeed, and in only and exactly the manner in which we have seen it succeed since the Acts of the Apostles and the formation of the earliest monasteries and those extant today: through the self-complete surrender to Christ, the voluntary, un-coerced, un-compelled embracing of personal poverty, and a willingness to be denuded and effaced for the sake of the soul, and that soul’s community.
This is the only just means by which a communist ideal may be implemented, and because its undertaking is supernaturally and paradoxically empowering”one becomes free by radically, willfully limiting one’s personal options and possessions”it is anathema to those whose understanding of liberty have been perverted and distorted into something wholly unfree, and super-unnatural.
The communal theory can bring an abundance of riches and a wealth of liberty, but only when each individual first surrenders them both, and not to anyone on earth.
Elizabeth Scalia is a contributing writer of First Things . She blogs at The Anchoress . Her previous articles for “On the Square” can be found here .

• There seems to be only one sure way to avoid failure and that is never to do anything. But this in itself is failure of a different kind. In this paper our exploration of the nature of failure and its relationship with success suggests that true failure consists of not trying at all, giving up too soon, or not learning and changing when.
• Well, I have a suggestion: stop telling everyone else that science is the best, if not only, way to answer life’s big questions. While this advice may not fix the problems in the lab, it keeps the “turn toward darkness” from spreading misinformation to the rest of society.

To Err is Human: Why Failure is the Only Way to Succeed Ezra Meyers. Freelance writer focused on web development, email marketing and baseball. He lives in Los Angeles, but wishes he lived in Tokyo. Our society is fixated on the idea of prodigies, people who just have some sort of 'it' factor that makes them more capable of success than others. “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” The only way to change what isn’t working in your life is to get to the truth.

Rejection. Losing. Failure. Nobody strives for them. No athlete sets out to lose, no entrepreneur’s goal is bankruptcy. But as if an act of divine mercy, there’s positives to be found in the negatives. In fact, successful people often preach as Gospel the value found in failure.

Denis Waitley said it well. “Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing and being nothing.”

The mark of a successful person lies in their response to negative situations. They lick their wounds but stay on the battlefield. They find strength in their scars. Here are 10 hidden blessings to cushion rejection, losing and failure.

1. You’ll clarify your passions.

Many of us struggle with decision making. Folks with creative energy typically have their hand in multiple pies. But even a jack-of-all-trades knows there’s a limit to how thin you can spread yourself.

Often, failure and losing result from diminished passion. You'll realize you weren’t as passionate about that project as first thought. The pruning effect is a positive. As you clear your plate a little, you'll make more room for what really excites you, and direct your energy toward that. Focused energy is when you’re most effective. Failure gets rid of fluff.

Related: How to Redefine Failure so You're Not Crippled by It

2. You’ll uncover new skills.

Remember when George Bush nimbly dodged that shoe aimed at his head? Nobody thought he had the skill to do that. And I suspect neither did he. Until that moment.

Facing challenges and enduring a loss compels you to gather up resources and develop skills beyond your arsenal. In cases of “hysterical strength,” where people lift vehicles off someone trapped, it’s the negative situation that creates the spike of adrenaline needed to act beyond one’s capability.

Negative experiences cause us to respond in ways beyond what we thought possible. The obstacle beckons to be overcome. To rise to the occasion, there needs to be an occasion.

3. You’ll find out who your friends are.

Take a spill and you’ll see who emerges out of the Facebook crowd to lift you up. Sure, everyone’s busy, but we make time for the things we value and care about. “I’m too busy” can be translated, “It’s not that important.”

Hitting rock bottom has a way of uncovering the healthy, genuine relationships from the detrimental. You’ll want to keep investing in those who are nursing your wounds, and distancing yourself from those silent and nowhere to be seen.

4. You’ll check your blind spots.

It only takes one accident for a driver to never forget to check their blind-spot again. A harsh way to learn, but some changes in behavior only happen with major shocks to the system.

While there are habits and skills you haven’t yet acquired, failures remind us of habits and skills we do possess, but are simply lazy in implementing. After suffering a burglary, you’ll never forget to lock the screen door again.

Related: 5 Mistakes I've Made So You Don't Have To

5. You’ll Burn away pride and arrogance.

Nobody is immune to pride and arrogance. To say you’re beyond pride and arrogance is a little…well…prideful and arrogant. Losing is the glass of water for that bitter pill of pride. But that unpleasant process gives birth to humility. Which is perhaps the most attractive and profitable virtue anyone can possess.

As the well known proverb goes, pride goeth before the fall. Rejection and loss exchanges pride for humility, and humility may be the saviour that keeps you from a truly damaging fall.

6. You’ll grow elephant skin.

The shins of Muay Thai fighters can break baseball bats. The micro-fractures from hours of kicking heavy bags become filled with calcium, resulting in abnormal bone density just as muscle fibers grow as a result of micro-tears in the gym.

The adage rings true, it’s the pain that brings the gain. Advice 101 for anyone stepping out to pursue their dream is prepare for rejection, criticism and haters. With each punch thrown your way, you’ll realize you can’t please everyone, that the issue lies more with them than with you and the impact will start to soften.

7. You’ll never again wonder “what if?”

The question of “what if?” can cause hours on end staring out the window. When that curiosity is pursued only to find you’ve boarded the wrong plane, failure is the blessing that pulls you right off. You’ll no longer be kept up at night wondering about that other option.

Curiosity can cripple your consciousness and distract from the work you should be doing. But sometimes engaging your own nagging is the only way to silence it.

To Err Is Human: Why Failure Is The Only Way To Succeed Quote

Seeing his father drink beer, a teenage Tony Robbins begged his mother to let him try. Not only did she let him try, she gave him a whole six-pack, and wouldn’t let him leave until he drank every drop. Tony has never touched alcohol since. The taste of his own vomit may have something to do with that.

Related: 3 Ways Owning Your Mistakes Will Make You Powerful

8. You’ll finally ask for help.

Everyone with passion and ambition is tragically plagued with superhero-syndrome. That becomes harmful when the candle is burning at both ends, drifting toward burnout.

When the word “help” disappears from your vocabulary, it’s found when you crash and burn. You'll realize the skill of delegation is critical for your health and progress. The pain teaches us to move from viewing help negatively as a form of weakness, to positively recognizing that success is expanding your own capacity by forming a team.

9. You’ll go to the drawing board.

Failure encourages you to engage in iteration. The process of reevaluating and refining produces a better result. As the saying goes, Why fix it if it ain’t broke? Some things need fixing, but reevaluation seldom happens before something breaks.

One of the greatest human achievements is the 110-mile swim from Cuba to Florida, without a shark cage. The only individual in the world to accomplish that feat is 64-year old Diana Nyad in 2013. It was her fifth attempt. She tried once in 1978 and three more times from 2011 – 2012 before succeeding.

To Err Is Human: Why Failure Is The Only Way To Succeed Quotes

One major reason her fourth attempt was cut short was jellyfish stings that left her face puffy and swollen. This time, she wore a full body suit, gloves and a mask at night—when jellyfish rise to the surface.

She failed, went back to the drawing board, made iterations, then succeeded.

10. You’ll appreciate your success.

Value and meaning become heightened in the face of difficulty. The greatest celebrations come from the toughest battles. You’ll realize the dream isn’t all rainbows and butterflies. When the journey includes getting back on your feet and dusting yourself off, you’ll be more inclined to stop when you see roses, and express a little more gratitude at the finish line.

There are just 14 “eight-thousanders” on Earth, meaning the tiny number of mountains higher than 8,000 meters. Few recognize the name Kangchenjunga while Everest, just 262 meters higher, is a household name. The failures and deaths attempting to climb Everest make it the most respected and celebrated climb.

The bitterness of every failure adds sweetness to every victory.

Related: What Scaling Mount Everest Taught Me About Leadership