Failure? It’s just a stage on the way to success

GLOBAL adventurer and best-selling author Bear Grylls hosts and produces shows such as The Island and Bear’s Mission With… The 44-year-old lives in London and North Wales with his wife Shara and their three sons – Jesse, Marmaduke and Huckleberry. THE first time I put myself up for 21 SAS selection as a young soldier, I failed. The months of hard graft were little compared to the pain of being told I hadn’t made the cut. If I’d listened to certain voices, I would have given up. Why put myself through it all again? Why risk another failure? Why not choose an easier path?

But I had other, quieter voices to follow, like my father’s. As a child, whenever I fell off my bike or hurt myself climbing a tree, he knew exactly what to say to get me back up on my feet and ready to try again. He taught me that every failure, no matter how tough to swallow at the time, is really just a stepping stone towards your goal. But you have to choose to get back up and to keep going.

It was that attitude that helped me make a second – successful – attempt at

AS ROCKY SAID LIFE ISN’T ALL SUNSHINE AND RAINBOWS…

21 SAS selection. And it was a turning point in my life. That same determination to keep getting back up came into play again a few years later when I broke my back in a parachuting accident.

In the weeks and months that followed, I didn’t know whether I would ever be able to walk properly again. The accident robbed me of my movement and skills. But I tried to see it as a stepping stone towards a new goal. And so, 18 months after my accident – and 20 years ago this summer – I finally got to stand on the summit of Mount Everest. The pain and struggle of that career-ending injury was instrumental in turning a childhood dream into reality. It taught me to fight back.

I’m so grateful for those early lessons in failure that my father taught me. Being a dad myself means I get to pass some of that wisdom on to my three boys. It’s a gift to be able to tell them that what really matters is that they do their best and never give up. And when they’ve stumbled, being alongside them as they get back up and try again is as sweet as any mountain-top I’ve experienced.

Maybe Rocky said it best in the film starring Sylvester Stallone: ‘The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows… You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.’