道場で泣き戦場で笑う
Dojo de naki, senjo de warau
Cry in the dojo, laugh on the battlefield
The best martial artists don’t fear failure; they embrace it. There is a power in failure that comes about when we change our perception of it. This positive view on failure possibly comes from the popular Asian proverb shippai wa seiko nomoto (失敗は成功のもと) or “failures are the stepping-stones to success.” Every good martial artist knows that everyone fails and no one is immune to it. Through training, we come to realize that failing doesn’t make us a failure. To fail means “to be unsuccessful” but we should think of it as not successful, yet. To “be” a failure is actually a misnomer because a person can fail but no one at their heart “is” a failure. Failure is actually singular and an isolated event, but it can feel like a pattern. We can fail at an attempt but that does not mean that we “are” failures. So, to say that a person is a “failure” is just something that someone says to be derogatory. What all good martial artists should embrace is that it’s ok to fail. Failing means that we are in the process. If we are repeatedly failing that means, at the very least, we are repeatedly trying. William Hewlett, one of the founders of Hewlett-Packard said, “If you don’t fail on a regular basis, you are not trying hard enough.” There was once this Nike commercial years ago in which Michael Jordan says, “I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” Understanding Jordan’s assertion, a person who never tries will never win. The truth is that no one ever loses forever and so if we change our perception about failing, then we can use our failures as stepping-stones toward success. In battle, failure most likely resulted in losing one’s life. Therefore, a warrior would train hard because they believed in dojo de naki, senjo de warau (道場で泣き戦場で笑う) or “Cry in the dojo, laugh on the battlefield.” They laughed because the difficulty on the battlefield paled in comparison to the failures that they endured in the dojo. They also laughed because there is a finality that they have come to accept by enduring all of these failures in the past. Today, the edge between life and death doesn’t exist for most people as most of us don’t fight in life or death battles. That is part of the absurdity of learning a martial art - most of us will never use it to defend our lives. Training also brings about the realization that most things in life can’t or won’t kill us - they are just uncomfortable. Therefore, training in a martial art becomes a method toward self-improvement. When we can see past the judgement of failing, we can see that failures are just how we become successful and only part of the process en route to becoming successful. Yamaoka Tesshu said, “As a samurai, I must strengthen my character; as a human being I must perfect my spirit.” Part of this perfection that Tesshu is referring to comes from accepting failure as part of the process. Everyone fails and that is why the best martial artists don’t fear failure; they embrace it.
Today’s goal: Don’t forget. No matter what happens, you are not a failure. You just haven’t succeeded yet.