From failure to success

How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success?

Thinking back to my biology class in eleventh class i am reminded of the dissection of a monocotyledon and dicotyledon stem. We were required to make very thin slices of the hibiscus stem using a razor blade to be viewed under the microscope. You may think that is a child’s play but it wasn’t. The slices needed to be thin enough to be covered perfectly on a slide with a thin coverslip! So infact the height of the specimen had to be as near to negligible as possible.

So first day i set out with my stem and blade making attempts after attempts to no avail. The coverslip would invariably lift up from the slide due to the almost negligible height available to the specimen. And the laboratory assistant had me repeat the same over and over and over again with no success. I practiced the same at home also to get a hold of the process

This continued for a few more laboratory sessions and my colleagues were rapidly getting there, but I was still stuck where I began. At the end of the session i asked the laboratory assistant for what I may be doing wrong as i had already ripped my fingers in various places and was still not close to having perfect samples. They were either half way or too thick for proper visualisation. She suggested that I try out with a brand new blade for the next session.

So armed with a new razor and a fewer more stem samples i attended the next class. I got to work instantly. Slicing as thin stems as possible. But everytime I took them to the laboratory assistant she discarded it as not ideal sample. This continued for the entire session. But just the last sample that I showed her actually had her pleased. She said that this is the ideal sample that could be mounted on the microscope to visualise the structures easily. And infact i was actually amazed at the result my persistent efforts had yielded.

If you too have had similar experiences please do share so I know for sure I am not alone in this process of evolution from failure to success in small mundane daily activities and events

Image from pixabay