Our Willingness to Fail

We learned to walk
As a young child,
And it didn’t matter
How many times
We fell down
In the process,
We just kept trying
Until we got it mastered.
Our parents encouraged us.
They didn’t tell us
After a couple falls
To give up
And never try again,
And even if they did,
We didn’t listen.
Now that we are older
Something has changed.
Some of our flexibility
Has been lost,
Our capacity to fail
And keep on trying
Has largely disappeared.
We tend to take on
Only those tasks
Where interim failure
Can be avoided.
We have become
More concerned
With the risk of failure
Than the possibility of success.
For most of us,
We are lucky
That we learned to walk
As a child
Because as an adult
We would give up
After a few tries.