00:00:03quite as much as a desire for success
00:00:06indeed your conception of failure might
00:00:10not be too far removed from the average
00:00:12person’s idea of success so high
00:00:15have you already flown ultimately we all
00:00:20have to decide for ourselves what
00:00:22constitutes failure but the world is
00:00:25quite eager to give you a set of
00:00:27criteria if you let it so I think it
00:00:29fair to say that by any conventional
00:00:32measure a mere seven years after my
00:00:35graduation day I had failed on an epic
00:00:39scale an exceptionally short lived
00:00:43marriage had imploded and I was jobless
00:00:46a lone parent and as poor as it is
00:00:49possible to be in modern Britain without
00:00:51being homeless
00:00:54the fears that my parents had had for me
00:00:56and that I had had for myself had both
00:00:59come to
00:01:00and by every usual standard I was the
00:01:03biggest failure I knew
00:01:05now I’m not going to stand here and tell
00:01:07you that failure is fun that period of
00:01:10my life
00:01:12and I had no idea that there was going
00:01:14to be what the press has said since
00:01:16represented as a kind of fairytale
00:01:19resolution I had no idea then how far
00:01:22the Telex
00:01:23[Music]
00:01:24and you light at the end of it was a
00:01:26rather than a reality
00:01:29so why do I talk about the benefits of
00:01:33failure simply because failure meant is
00:01:37stripping away of the
00:01:40I stopped pretending to myself that I
00:01:43was anything other than what I want
00:01:46began to direct all my energy into
00:01:48finishing the only work that mattered to
00:01:50me had I really succeeded at anything
00:01:53else I might never have found the
00:01:55determination
00:01:56one arena where I believed I truly
00:01:59belong
00:02:01I will set free
00:02:04because my greatest fear
00:02:07and I was still alive if I still had a
00:02:09daughter whom I
00:02:11and I have an old typewriter
00:02:16became a solid pound
00:02:18[Music]
00:02:21you might never fail on the
00:02:32unless you lose
00:02:34might as well not
00:02:37in which case
00:02:42failure gave me an inner security that I
00:02:45had never attained by passing
00:02:46examinations failure taught me things
00:02:49about myself that I could have learned
00:02:50no other way I discovered that I had a
00:02:53strong will and more discipline than I
00:02:56had suspected I also found out that I
00:02:59had friends whose value was truly above
00:03:02the price of rubies the knowledge that
00:03:06you have emerged wiser and stronger from
00:03:08setbacks means that you are ever after
00:03:10secure in your ability to survive you
00:03:14will never truly know yourself or the
00:03:17strength of your relationships until
00:03:19both have been tested by adversity such
00:03:22knowledge is a true gift for all that it
00:03:26is painfully won and it has been worth
00:03:28more than any qualification I ever
00:03:31earned so given a time Turner I would
00:03:35tell my 21 year old self the personal
00:03:37happiness lies in knowing that life is
00:03:39not a checklist of acquisition or
00:03:42achievement your qualifications your CV
00:03:45are not your life though you will meet
00:03:48many people of my age and older who
00:03:50confuse the two life is difficult
00:03:54and complicated and beyond to anyone’s
00:03:56total control
00:03:58humility to know that will enable you to
00:04:00survive
00:04:05you
00:04:05[Music]
”