I worked at a large lumber mill, where I spent the best years of my life. I was a strong young man, capable of doing difficult, demanding work. By the time I turned forty,

I had become a respected figure in my field.

Then one day, a surprise changed my life: without warning, my boss told me to leave the mill for good and never come back! I walked out into the street with no

purpose and no hope. Images of all the hard work I had put in over the years flooded my mind. I had helped the mill grow, yet seemingly overnight,

everything was gone, with no recognition for the tremendous effort I had put into my work!

How I regret giving so much to someone who didn’t deserve it. I was overcome with frustration and despair, and felt as though the ground had swallowed me up. The only source of income

I had worked in it all my life. What made the disappointment even worse was that my wife and I had no source of income left, and I had no idea what to do.

I went home and told my wife what had happened. She asked, “What are we going to do?” I said, “I’ll mortgage the little house we live in and work in construction.” And so, I did.

My first project was to build two small houses. I poured all my effort and energy into them. More small projects followed, and they multiplied until I became a specialist in building small homes.

Five years of continuous hard work later, I had become a well-known millionaire.

These lines were part of the memoirs of Wallace Johnson, the man who founded and built the Holiday Inn hotel chain, and later established a vast number of hotels and rehabilitation centers around the world. In his memoirs, he wrote:

“If I knew where the boss who fired me from his workshop lived, I would go to him and offer my heartfelt thanks.”

Because of what He did for me. When this difficult situation happened, I was deeply hurt and didn’t understand why. Now I realize that God closed one door in my face to open up a better path for me and my family.

better for me and my family.”

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طاقات ومواهب

How many remarkable talents and abilities have been buried or left dormant beneath the rubble of limited, conventional jobs or outdated work—things we mistakenly believed were all we could do in life,

and that we could do nothing else. This is where the importance of pain in our lives becomes clear: how many difficult beginnings have led people to bright endings!

We should train ourselves and continually encourage ourselves to make the most of the difficult moments, breaking points, and failures we encounter from time to time. How wise is the saying:

“Failure carries within it diverse seeds of success—if only those seeds find fertile ground.”

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شرارة البداية

This is an invitation to you and me, dear reader, to reflect on the course of our lives and the times we have faced setbacks—and on the many gifts they brought us, through which

our glorious Creator, exalted be He, saved us from great hardships whose wisdom we understood only later.

Perhaps one of the most important lessons to learn is that failure in any endeavor is not the end of the road. It may instead be the spark that begins a more beautiful and better life. We must

learn to make the most of every failure we encounter. This means looking within, recognizing our hidden talents and abilities, and putting them to good use right away,

without hesitation or fear, and with all the quality and skill we can bring to bear.

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جوانب إيجابية

There’s no doubt that failure is harsh and painful, but it certainly has its positive side. To turn failure into success, we need to consider all of its

negative and positive aspects, rather than convincing ourselves that there’s nothing good about it. Failure may lead us to change careers so we can succeed in another field,

or a failed relationship may be the first step toward finding true love.

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متعة الفشل

One useful approach is to try to salvage what we can and use it as a starting point for a new and fulfilling life. The value of failure isn’t something those consumed by worry

and sadness can appreciate. It lies in learning more about our abilities—what we can and can’t do—and also in recognizing the importance of success. This makes us

more determined to achieve it; if we had never tasted the bitterness of failure, we wouldn’t appreciate the sweetness of success.

And positive thinking here means recognizing that failure is the beginning of success, learning how to turn failure into an opportunity for a better life, and remembering that beyond the dark tunnel of failure, the light of success

glimmers in the distance at the end of that tunnel.

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Determination and perseverance

Finally, let us remember that life is not worth dying of sorrow over. We can become better through determination and perseverance. Nothing more clearly shows the good hidden

behind every moment of hardship we experience than the words of God Almighty: “It may be that you dislike something while it is good for you, and it may be that you love something while it is bad

for you. God knows, and you do not know.” And God does not combine two hardships; indeed, every hardship is surely followed by two forms of ease.