In the sadness of failure, are the seeds of success!

Reading an article today by Paul Bateman (AGE and Freelance Journalist) in the Victorian Writer; writing about how we should devote ourselves to failing better this year.
It sounds like an oxymoron but what he means I think that to succeed you often have to experience failure. In fact I would even go further that to succeed you almost have had to certainly experience failure.
It is the ability to keep going and learn by your failures that is the key to your success.
Bateman was talking about writing but I think it applies to life. How many times have you applied for that job you really wanted, and failed at the interview or the selection process. Or have failed in a relationship or relationships again and again.
Bateman uses the example of Beckett to illustrate the point: His early writings were rejected, he changed his approach, he took risks, he dared to be different, he organised his time.
This was all brought about by his experience of failure and his ability to see failure for what it is. The stairway to success.
Do we see failure as a stairway to success or do we let it grind us into mediocrity and mendacity.
Thanks Paul for a great article inspiring us to think beyond the square. Do we believe that in the sadness of failure are the seeds of success?