failure

i'm not too sure what one learns with failure. for me, it's either of two things:

1) i wasn't prepared enough
2) i need to work harder the next time

if you never fail in life, do you think you miss out on life's learning process? can't it be the case that you're actually smart enough to know all the pit-falls and you've been successful in avoiding them?

what's this fascination with everyone branding failure as a learning experience? hey i don't need a learning experience, i need some positive results without the disappointments! i'd much rather have life dish out all the positives and not have me go through the pain of failure. if that makes me a softer person, a person whose missed out on life's learning aspects, so be it! i'll take that over failure any day.