It’s funny how just reviewing this title generates such vivid mental pictures.  Of a sneering old woman looming over me with an accusing finger of judgement wagging in my face, “You can’t say that.”  Of contemptuous men, in tailored suites, turning their noses up at such a distasteful choice of words, “So unprofessional.”  I almost want to recoil and stop typing this, but that would deny you the reader an opportunity to explore this concept with me and embrace the “F” word.

How can one even begin to grasp the concept of embracing such a profanity when society regards it as taboo?  The perplexity of it is that every one of us has used this word at some time or the other.  The word alone spawns’ strong emotions of resentment, fear, anxiety and defeat.

First, let me start out by pointing out that I am not referring to the famous four-letter word that initially aroused your interest in this piece, but an equally unsavoury and repugnant word that is so humiliating, that the fear it triggers in us is nothing short of debilitating.

FAILURE my dear readers, yes, I said it, FAILURE.

Over the years, I have found myself understanding more and more why this word gives even the avid horror movie fanatic the heebie-jeebies.  This one venomous word is so potent, that it shackles us,

causing us to stagnate within our comfort zones.  It dissipates creativity, compelling us to squander opportunity.

I myself have been victim to the sombre ruse of this word.  There have been countless times, that I have witnessed the crippling effect its power has on the psyche.  Almost like a character from a Stephen King novel – its spidery tentacles encircling your last sliver of hope, snatching it in its cold bony grasp.  It closes in; crushing and smothering till you finally give in and admit defeat. 

Failure happens, and yes, it is extremely difficult to wade in the aftermath of its devastation.

No one ever told me it was okay to fail.  In fact I remember my days in school, and my loving father, being the disciplinarian that he was, drilling it into me that failure was unacceptable.  As I grew up, the fear of failure was so deeply engrained, that its intensity was revealed only when I entered the working world.  I remember going in for my first job interview with my dad’s voice ringing in my ears, “failure is unacceptable.”  I remember with sobering clarity how shattered I was when my application was unsuccessful, and the paralysing fear when I realised I had to try again.  My second interview was even harder, now I knew I had failed before, so I trembled with uncertainty and stammered and stuttered my way through.  I realised that the more I failed, the harder I had to work to build my composure, to nurse my wounded ego and get up again.  Just when I believed my frayed fortitude could hold on no longer, I made it.

Failure is inevitable.

Everybody has failed, although some refuse to admit it. Don’t let them fool you. If you research the stories of the most successful people of our time, you’ll find they, too, have failed. In fact, it was failure that produced the success stories of people like Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey, and Walt Disney, just to name a few. So calm down. You’re in incredible company.

Thomas Edison's teachers told him he was "too stupid to learn anything." Edison famously invented 1,000 light bulbs before creating one that worked.

Harland David Sanders, the famous KFC "Colonel," couldn't sell his chicken. More than 1,000 restaurants rejected him. But then one did, and today there are KFC restaurants bearing his image all over the world. 

Soichiro Honda was passed over for an engineering job at Toyota and left unemployed. But then he began making motorcycles, started a business and became a billionaire. 

Vera Wang failed to make the U.S. Olympic figureskating team. Then she became an editor at Vogue and was passed over for the editor-in-chief position. She began designing wedding gowns at 40 and today is the premier designer in the business, with a multi-billion-dollar industry.

Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because he "lacked imagination and had no good ideas." Several more of his businesses failed before the premiere of his movie Snow White. Today, most childhoods wouldn't be the same without his ideas.

Albert Einstein didn't speak until age four and didn't read until age seven. His teachers labelled him "slow" and "mentally handicapped." But Einstein just had a different way of thinking. He later won the Nobel prize in physics.

Oprah Winfrey was fired from her television reporting job because they told her she wasn't fit