“Failure is not a option!”

This is a familiar phrase.  We hear it in war movies, such as “G.I. Jane.”  In fact for some, it’s banal and shallow.  Why: how much do we learn from our success?  And how much more from our screw-ups?

There’s a book about “Celebrating Failure: The Power of Taking Risks, Making Mistakes and Thinking Big.”

This prevailing question about the good, which comes from failure, bubbled up in my brain because of a piece in the “Wall Street Journal:” The Art of Failing Successfully.

Which experience teaches us, or impels us to grow the most?  It ain’t that wonderful triumph!

While awards and handshakes are splendid, and affirm each of us, our mistakes and wrong-headed decisions, or judgment calls teach us in ways success cannot.

Ask anyone who’s tried the untried; ask Steve Jobs.

Ask the folks behind the Apollo 13 mission; in the movie, mission chief Jim Lovell’s colleagues described it as a successful failure.