Facinating Thoughts

Expecting Failure May 28, 2011

Growing up in a family of professor and teacher, I was a master of books from very early age. Year after year, I effortlessly acquired more and more book knowledge of all things. It was easy and enjoyable for me. However, I was always nervous about anything that requires practical knowledge. When I was young, I was terrified every time mom wanted me to hold the place in a waiting que while she minded some other urgent businesses. Time suddenly moved excruciatingly sluggish and the line shortened twice as fast. I would count and recount the number of people ahead me, dreading the awful moment when it should be my turn for service. What if mom had not come back for me then? Would I step aside to give up my slot? Would I pee my pants? What would I said to people? You know, no book tought you about this kind of triviality. People just somehow caught on. But I wasn’t. If a book was not there to teach me, then I’d not know what to do.

By the time I finished my lengthy book education, I was already a grown-up and had enough experience to realized the hard truth, that years of schooling would not help a bit if I couldn’t deal with the real world. What a shocker! At school we love to deal with “ideal” systems and environments, where professors can easily dismiss any facts of inconvenience as noises and move on to demonstrate their pure theories. In reality, everything fails and successes are solely depend on our survivability against odds. I witnessed smart people of high learning ending up working for seemingly stupid and lazy bosses for wages, because they couldn’t make a living without being directed on what to do. I beg to be different.

I sell used items on Amazon.com from time to time. The first time I tried it was a failure. I confused my item to a very similar model made by the same manufacture and my buyer didn’t like it even my item is essentially the same as the correct model. He wanted to return my item for a full refund. Bad luck I thought. But it was my fault. I processed return and paid the return shipping fee. My second try was also troublesome. I sold a used book about job interview. A week later, the buyer emailed me about possible return. This time I figured that the buyer only wanted a refund because she probably just finished her job interview. I politely reiterated my policy of not accepting used book returns and recommend Amazon.com as a possible place for her to re-sell her book. Having both tries ended up having return requests, selling on Amazon.com began to look like a waste of time. Yet I believe the fairness of bad luck. If I got too many bad luck, then good luck could be just around corner. I kept selling and, interestingly, never met a single return request again.

This is the real world where failures are not if, but when and where. Yet by the end of day, it’s going to be just fine.

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