Maulana Wahiduddin Khan I The Sunday Guardian I Oct 17, 2021
Hargobind Khorana (1922 – 2011), born in Raipur in West Punjab, was an Indian-American biochemist. He earned his B.Sc. and M.Sc. from Punjab University, Lahore. Then, in 1945, he went to Manchester University and obtained a PhD. Three years later, when he returned to India in 1948, he applied for the post of lecturer in Delhi University, but was rejected. This thoroughly depressed him, as he now thought his future looked bleak. However, he returned to England to carry out further research in his field. His hard work yielded fruitful results and later, in 1968, he received the Nobel Prize for an important discovery relating to DNA.
There are many such instances in history of some well-read, talented person being denied a position for which he was well qualified, but after a long struggle, emerging eventually as a super-achiever. These events tell us about a great secret of nature. That is, failure has a greater impact than success. Once you are successful, you become contented and begin to take things easy. However, if you experience failure, that gives you the incentive to put in much more effort than you normally do and such qualities come to the surface as would have remained dormant under normal circumstances. This is why failure can work as a stepping stone to great success.