There is no single great goal achiever in the world who has never tasted failure in school or life. The fact that all great achievers in history tasted failure before their raging success suggests that failing your exam does not mark the end of a brighter future. Just reflect on the stories of these great men.

Albert Einstein, the greatest and most intelligent and influential scientist of modern times. He showed little scholastic ability as a child. He left school at the age of 15 with no diploma and poor grades in history, geography, and languages. One teacher predicted that Einstein would never amount to anything and that he would drift forever in foolish dreams. At the age of 16, he applied for admission to Zurich Polytechnic, Switzerland, but failed the entrance exam. Yet, this man grew up to become the greatest theoretical physicist of all time, with one of the most creative intellects in human history.

Charles Darwin, one of the greatest scientists in the history of mankind, did so badly at school that his father decided to take him out of school. In his autobiography, Darwin recounted his father telling him, “You only care about shooting and catching dogs and rats. You will bring shame to yourself and your entire family.” He was later sent to the University of Edinburgh to study medicine and become a medical doctor. He gave up the medical studies, describing them as too boring and difficult. He remarked again in his autobiography that, “I was considered by my teachers and father a very ordinary boy, rather below the common standard of intellect.” This man, who struggled in school, failed many exams, and had to run away from reading medicine, grew up to become one of the most intelligent and successful scientists in the world. Students worldwide remember him as the creator of the renowned evolutionary theory.

Sir Isaac Newton is regarded by many modern scientific scholars as a scientific genius and “father of physics.” He showed little promise in academic work in his boyhood days, as he had poor grades in every exam. His school reports described him as idle and inattentive. Because of his poor performance in school, his mother removed him from school to manage the family’s farms and estates, but he proved an even worse farm manager than a scholar. His uncle encouraged him to go to Cambridge University, which he agreed to. Even at Cambridge University, Newton failed a scholarship exam. Eventually, he graduated from Cambridge University without honors or distinction. Through hard work and perseverance, Newton developed his intelligence to become one of the greatest scientific minds in history, and all modern science and technology stem from his work. He is the brain behind the law of gravity and motion in science.

Sir John Bertrand Gurdon is an English developmental biologist who is well known for his pioneering research in nuclear transplantation. Gurdon struggled in school and had terrible grades in all science-related subjects. He ranked last out of the 250 boys in his year group in biology and was at the bottom of every other science subject. His own biology teacher made the below negative comments about him after his first semester of biology when he was 15 years old.

“I believe Gurdon has ideas about becoming a scientist. On his present showing,
This is quite ridiculous. If he can’t learn simple biological facts, he would
have no chance of doing the work of a specialist, and it would be a sheer waste
of time, both on his part and on the part of those who would have to teach him.”

Eventually, Gurdon went ahead to study zoology, which is a branch of biology, at Oxford University, the very course he ranked last in class at high school. Surprisingly, this man who always ranked last in high school biology has done impressive work in the field. His experiments and research have captured the attention of the scientific community. He was awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine in 2012 for his groundbreaking contribution to modern science.

Jack Ma, the Chinese billionaire who, as of December 2016, was worth $27.9 billion, experienced soul-crushing failure in school and in life but managed to keep his optimism. Jack Ma was not a good student, and in fact, he almost lost the chance to go into middle school due to persistent bad grades. He failed key primary school tests twice, failed the middle school test three times, failed the college entrance exam two times, and scored 1 out of 120 points, representing less than 1% on the math test of the college entrance exam. …” Ouch. These are things most of us are lucky enough to have never said to our parents. Jack Ma’s academic tragedy continued when he applied to be admitted into Harvard University, and he was rejected 10 times by Harvard University. After college, he applied to 30 different jobs and was subsequently rejected by all of them. He even applied to be police officer, but he was rejected and harshly told, “you are not good.” Jack Ma kept on persisting in the midst of failures and rejections. Today, he is the richest man in China and the founder of the famous Alibaba Group, a worldwide e-commerce company that provides sales services via web portals. His philosophy is, “If you don’t give up, you still have a chance.” Giving up is the greatest failure.” Jack Ma failed many exams in school and experienced many rejections, but he never gave up and kept moving until he became successful in life.

My dear reader, failure is not fatal, and failing your exams doesn’t mean you are going to fail in life. Even the greatest scientists, politicians, scholars, and entrepreneurs have ever struggled and failed many exams. Some even dropped out of school but went on to become successful. Failing an exam does not mean you cannot succeed in life later. After all, Bill Gates failed some subjects in school and even dropped out of Harvard University in 1975, yet he became the richest man in the world. Even in business, his first company, called Traf-O-Data, failed miserably before he founded Microsoft, through which he became the richest man in the world. Failure, whether in school or life, is an inevitable step to success. Understand the reality and expect it along the course of life. Never give up.

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