Nana korobi, ya oki

“Nana korobi, ya oki” is a Japanese proverb that roughly translates to: “Fall down seven times, stand up eight.

This speaks to the Japanese concept of resilience.

No matter how many times you get knocked down, you get up again.

Even if you should fall one thousand times, you just keep getting up and trying again.

You can see this ethic reinforced in all facets of Japanese culture including education, business, sports, the martial arts the Zen arts, etc.

It is especially important to remember the sentiment expressed in this proverb when times are dark.

There are no quick fixes in life and anything of real worth will necessarily take much struggle and perseverance.

Success does not have to be fast, what is more important is that one simply does their absolute best and remains persistent.

We tend to be great scorekeepers of the times we fell.

Perhaps we ought to keep count of the number of times we stood up instead?

We need to see failure as a stepping stone to success. Here is a TEDxMahikeng talk I gave on seeing:

PS: Periodic reminder that failure is not the falling down. It is the staying down.