Failure is probably the most exhausting experience one ever has. There is nothing more tiring than not succeeding. We experience this tiredness in two ways: start-up fatigue (疲惫) and performance fatigue.

In the former case, we keep putting off a task because it is either too boring or too difficult. 【小题1】 Such start-up fatigue is very real, even if not actually physical. The solution is obvious though perhaps not easy to apply: always handle the most difficult job first. 【小题2】 Using my own rule, I determined to write them in alphabetical (字母) order and I always started the day’s work with the difficult task of essay-writing. Experience proved that the rule works.

【小题3】 Though willing to get started, we cannot seem to do the job right. Its difficulties appear so great that we fail again and again. Years ago, when planning Encyclopedia Britannica (《大英百科全书》), I had to create a table of contents based on the topics of its article. Nothing like this had ever been done before and none of the solutions that I came up with worked. My fatigue became almost unbearable. Mentally exhausted, I wrote down all the reasons why the problems cannot be solved. I tried to convince myself that the trouble was with the problem itself, not with me. 【小题4】 An hour later, I woke up suddenly with the solution which had come up in my unconscious mind and proved correct at every step.

【小题5】 Success was now as exciting as failure had been depressing. Human beings, I believe, must try to succeed. Success, then, means never feeling tired.