Defeat continues but winning never stops- An ode to my brother

Chinese say” Fall seven times but get up eight times”, does it makes sense to try again and fall back much lower than the position you were before you end up failing many times? How about walking away and try something which we can easily get out in hands.


If you read any biographies about any great persons either living or have lived, there’s one thing so common about them and their stories. And their stories are not short of any failure. In most of the cases, it’s the failure most of the stories are about. Some lost the battle fields, some lost the competition, and some lost the loved ones. It would have killed their hope for survival, and the desire to compete with life, but it hardly happened with them. Failures did not stop them, and today history is full of their stories, the stories which would motivate so many souls who gave up, and inspire so many who aspire. They fought the depression, failure and discouragement.

Albert Einstein was assumed to be retarded and was left out of the school. It was not so long when he went to become the one of the greatest scientist we ever had. Lincoln succeeded becoming a sixteenth president after having failed and lost more than a dozen times. It is said that when he was young, he went to a war as a captain and returned as a private. We won’t be having a bright light had it not been for Edison who invented the bulb and he was asked to leave the school while he was small. His mother taught him. Do you know what happened to Honda? He was rejected by an automobile company for an engineer’s job. And today, Honda is one of the most successful automobile companies. Honda made his own scooter and sold them to the neighbors. Stephen king’s first novel was rejected several times, but his wife fished it out from a bin and resubmitted it, and he went to publish many novels. "I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." You know who quoted this one? Jordan, yeah Michael Jordan and we all know who Jordan is.

Life is all about learning from a failure. All the above facts somehow show that, that after every dark night, day light follows, that at the end of the tunnel, there is a light and no matter how many times you fall down, you can get up. Failure makes you introspective. It gives you a chance to do it in something better than the earlier try. It rejuvenates the valor with extra care and wisdom.

But the best experience about such stories are the ones of which we are the part of. My brother couldn’t perform better in class twelfth examination. I was in first year in my college. He wanted to do engineering, but his marks couldn’t even take him to become a teacher. Dad was under a pressure of forcing him to do a diploma in engineering for which he got absorbed. There was so much a pressure in the family, dad was literally saddened and my brother was totally devastated with the overturn of the exam. He wanted to reappear, but couldn’t make out a decision before father. I always knew that he can do better than me in anything if he puts little bit of hardwork. I acted a mediator in between and my brother got admitted into Bajothang high school to re-appear the exam once again. Since parents stayed in Bajo, it was convenient for him to stay with parents and study while he can also help dad.

After completing my first year, I went home. At first, I was little angry with him for not having taken the examination so seriously. He was better than me, but he couldn’t bring out the best we expected from him.
We had a several discussions about so many things. But one particular talk that is so much to my heart was telling him that “A defeat continues but winning never stops”. I told him about so many people who made mistakes and succeeded. Like a mantra in morning, before he wakes up, I asked him to dream about his own life some years from now.

And there it was, he scored pretty good marks that too just by studying without going to school. He was given the admission by school which would make him eligible to give final examinations, but couldn’t let him sit in the class. It was the rule against Bhutan Board of Education to allow repeaters study like regular class twelve students. He not only did pretty well, but got more than enough marks to guarantee himself in an engineering college in College of Science and technology. All that I said to him was “Dude, I think you deserve a salute from me”. It was so special feeling and a big achievement. He replied “It’s all because you were there for me as a big brother. Thank you!” Today he is pursuing his dream in CST which he almost left it on the half way.


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