"Bond? Give me a definition of failure.
" "Me, Sir.
" "While your assessment is accurate, boy, I was looking for a definition, not an example.
Anyone?" So back I crawled into my comfy little shell where failure was a familiar friend.
It was expected of me, was failure.
Success was pointless.
People used to simply throw their hands in the air in disbelief if I actually did well at anything, so failure was far more comfortable.
At least I knew where I was with failure.
Then, when I was about twelve, I found myself being taught Latin by the most extraordinary master.
He was a giant of a man who had this knack of imparting his encyclopedic knowledge in a way I could understand.
In just one term, the speeches of Cicero and Caesar were no longer a mystery to me.
A page of Cicero translated from English to Latin? Certainly.
I found I could do this as easily as read a page in English.
Now, while the master was delighted with my progress, it never seemed to turn into success, at least in my mind.
I suppose that I was so used to failure, that success simply flew over my head, never really making itself known to me.
To cut a long story short, I was brought up with the mindset of failure.
There was no point in success, because that went ignored.
Failure was expected of me, apparently, and I tried not to disappoint.
For someone without any self confidence to begin with, coupled to the fact that failure was expected of you, this was a less than satisfactory way of starting out in life.
Then adulthood rushes up on you, and I remember having a few small successes and thinking; 'What if this idea of my being a total failure is wrong? I was congratulated for doing, (whatever it was I did), so that was obviously appreciated.
Time to put the insanity of childhood behind me.
' It took me a long time to do this and even today, it still haunts me occasionally.
But instead of crawling back into my 'failure shell,' I started to learn from my mistakes, understanding that failure was inevitable, but then so was success.
Sixty years ago, it was considered dangerous to praise a boy for an accomplishment in case he developed that horror of horrors -- the 'Big Head.
' But bringing up a child in this way is tantamount to criminal.
A lot of boys and girls simply let it wash over them; their self esteem and confidence allowed them to do this.
But for those of us who didn't enjoy such qualities, it was downright crippling.
So parents and teachers, please.
If you find a child who does well, particularly if he or she isn't too sure of themselves, make sure you praise them and give them every encouragement.
Not to do so, or worse still, to emphasize their failures, can cripple them for life.
And believe me, I should know!