.: Failure vs Success :.

When Sara Blakely was growing up, her father would often ask her the same question at dinnertime.

"What have you failed at this week?" Blakely recalled in an interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box" n Wednesday. "My dad growing up encouraged me and my brother to fail. The gift he was giving me is that failure is (when you are) not trying versus the outcome. It's really allowed me to be much freer in trying things and spreading my wings in life."

Excerpt from an article here

Being brought up by typical asian parents, failure is more often than not, not an option. If you fail at something, work harder so that you will be good at it. If you are good at something, work harder to be the best.

It is not that I have never failed in my life, it's just that there are plenty of things out there that I have not tried, because I was too afraid to fail. I have been "walking on the safe side so I don't get hurt (from failing)" type of mentality.

A colleague asked me, if I were to have kids - would I push them? Would I push them academically or in sports so that they can be the best? I guess I would say no, I won't push them. But then again, looking back, if my parents didn't push me - would I still be where I am now? Or worse? Or better? I guess we'll never really know, would we?

So, though I would say I wouldn't be pushing them, I would at least want to encourage them to try everything - surfing, chess, music, art, soccer, advance maths (had to put this in, haha), skiing, etc. And find something that they like and something that the could succeed in.