Failure is almost as unavoidable as death or taxes. At some point in our lives we stumble and fall. But the truth is that failure is necessary before any success can be achieved. Upon closer examination, failure is nothing more than a precedent to success.

From the day we set foot on this earth to the day we depart, failure is something that we face on a daily basis. Failure can be trivial or devastating, or anywhere in between. Some people, when they encounter failure get discouraged. While others accept it as part of a learning process and use it to better themselves.

More often than not, many people who made it into our history books are remembered for a handful of successes. What the books don't tell us, is that those few successes were achieved through a mountain of failures. These people, instead of getting discouraged, learned from their mistakes and achieved their goals. Many visionaries are misunderstood by their contemporaries but are greatly admired by future generations.

School for many of us is a place where our skills are put to the test, and soon enough we find that failure is there, waiting around the corner. The moment a person thinks that nothing can go wrong; he/she stumbles and falls. Some of us experience academic failure, or social, or both. Through conformity, failure has gained a bad reputation. Everybody is expected to comply and if you can't, too bad. But the truth is that failure is a necessary part of life and is a learning tool that is more valuable than all the books in the world.