Unreasonable. Unafraid.

Thanks to Vandana, who introduced me to this article.

There was an overwhelming response to the last column. Over a hundred of you wrote in to say it meant something to you - I was especially touched to hear from readers who confessed to being on the other side of 55. There seem to be enough of us who don't believe in the idea of 'sunset years'.

A few of you, ironically the younger among the lot, were sceptical. "All very well for me to decry soulless ambition," one young thing harrumphed, "but was it all just because I was successful? What if I'd been a failure instead - would I still feel the same way?"

Perhaps this is the core issue. The humongous fear in our hearts, built over years of conditioning that we should, at all costs, avoid the slightest possibility of being a failure.

How do I explain that every time I sit down at the keyboard, way past the deadline set by this magazine and stare at the blank document grinning maniacally back at me, I am petrified of not having anything meaningful to say? How then I wish I had a journalist's job, interviewing other people, collating their points of view and reporting on the news - so much easier (I think) than writing 700 words on, well, whatever comes to mind.

Failure is that little guy, sitting on my shoulder as I type this, casting a bored eye on the proceedings, seeing if I'll screw up again. Oh, and screwed up I have. I have failed as a columnist many times. I'm, perhaps, proud of only less than half the 50-odd columns I've written in the last two years. I certainly could have done better. But I've survived. And, perhaps, I'm missing the mark less often than I used to.

Or more often. I'm not sure. Heck knows I've failed often enough at stuff - I've been a mediocre vacuum cleaner salesman, written ads that sucked, taken decisions that came close to shutting down companies and putting people out of job, and even been dead broke several times in my life. But you know, it's okay. I lived through it. So did the others who were affected. We're all alive, and kicking.

Listeners at my talks come across and worriedly repeat the statistic that 95% of all new businesses fail - so am I being irresponsible in evangelising entrepreneurship? My favourite reply is that 100% of all human beings die, so should you bother with living?

Don't focus on failure - think a little beyond. Nobody dies of failure. The failed entrepreneur just gets up, and starts again. She may fall down yet again, but nobody stays down for long. Like Stallone in Rocky, we are all more than capable of that heroic feat of taking a blow and standing up again.

It doesn't matter if you're a winner or not in the world's eyes at the end. It will matter though - to yourself - that you stood up for what you believed in, and kept standing.

It is an old adage, but quite true, that nobody succeeds without failing. You've probably heard that Einstein failed at school, that Gandhi failed to make lasting peace in the subcontinent, that Tendulkar failed till a few matches ago, but you didn't take it to heart. Do so.

You don't succeed without learning. And you don't learn without failing, or making mistakes. Not only does failure not result in death, but it is also only failure that can make you grow. Only failure can help you live.

Why do magazines celebrate success? Will it not be more inspiring to celebrate failure?

Here's something to be more scared of: if you've been 'reasonable' like you were advised to be, if you've assiduously avoided failure, perhaps, you haven't done much at all. If Galileo was reasonable like the Church asked him to be, if Gandhi was reasonable like the British had wished, we'd all still be living in the dark ages.

It's only the unreasonable, the unafraid to fail, who cause us to progress. Give that a thought. Be unreasonable, be unafraid.

If any of this means something to you, drop me a note. I'll know then that I didn't fail with this column.

Mahesh Murty - for Business Week