It is disingenuous to label disappointments as blessings; But there are certainly some lessons to be learned from the disappointments
Life is a series of events, activities and circumstances that we hope or expect to have a positive outcome that will be beneficial to us. However, the results usually do not turn out as hoped or expected. When such expectations are not fulfilled, it is natural to feel sad and disappointed. But, people around us often encourage us to see the positive side in such a situation. And an expression often used as a way to lift our spirits is “Every disappointment is a blessing in disguise.”
Is that expression really true? Is every disappointment a blessing in disguise? I highly doubt that is the case. Someone has recently lost a lucrative appointment/contract, had their company seized from them or is ruined, had their assets confiscated due to debt, had their vehicle stolen, seen their children go down the wrong path, had a babysitter's marriage broken up, been deported, or been injured in an accident. What would be the blessing that was hidden in all the above scenarios. Why should even blessings come in a hidden manner?
The human spirit is capable of doing great and powerful things if properly directed. If one considers the significant developments around us that we see every day: creating machines that can perform surgeries thousands of miles away, enabling people who cannot speak to talk well, building underwater rail lines across oceans, transforming a desert area into one of the most cultivable lands in the world, and going into space to explore our universe, then there is no doubt that humans are truly great. However, sometimes disappointments can destroy our inner spirit. Therefore, there is a need for continuous encouragement.
The human spirit needs to rise above failures; It needs strength and reason to believe that it can overcome obstacles. Thus, my interpretation of the statement is that it is meant to point the victim toward other possibilities that may not be so obvious to him but which he can and should explore. It is also a way to give strength and uplift the spirit.
every disappointment is a lesson worth learning
Disappointment is disappointment. Something is lost; Something did not go our way; Either due to our mistake or due to external factors, we did not get what we expected or hoped for. Not getting results as per your expectations is not a blessing. However, in every disappointment, there is a lesson to be learned through retrospect. Lessons are learned only when one focuses one's mind back on the incident or situation and does a thorough postmortem to find out what went wrong and why it went wrong. Having such an understanding helps one course-correct and ensure that one gets better results next time.
Therefore, instead of being weighed down by disappointments and failures, we should continue to learn invaluable lessons from disappointing results in both our personal and professional lives. I do. Such disappointments create springboards that continually propel me to the next level of success.
Two significant business disappointments and important lessons I learned
initial business trip
At the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey, like most young minds, I was vibrant, enthusiastic and full of ideas that if put together would rival the tallest building on Marina Street Lagos. But I was inexperienced in business management; I had no understanding of how to properly organize my business. I was running the business on oral contract and besides this I also availed bank facility. Any average business mind might feel the threat of disaster, but not me. I had ideas, I secured verbal commitments and I managed to convince a bank to finance the venture. I thought, what could go wrong? Of course, everything that could go wrong did go wrong. People reneged on commitments, I was having difficulty finding new markets, and the business was collapsing faster than water from a broken dam. The business eventually went bankrupt. That was not a blessing by any means. Time, effort, sleepless nights, finances, my expectations, and the hopes of others who believed in me, were all wasted. But I learned decisive lessons from that disappointing episode, one of which was that a business must have a proper structure to have any chance of survival. The second is that contracts in business should be in black and white and properly signed.
Birth of SparkExplorer, Tutor.com, and Explorer+
This leads me to a recent setback I experienced in the edutech business I founded. I founded SparkExplorer, an afterschool on-demand tutoring platform designed to help young schoolchildren learn or master difficult academic skills. We have signed up with US tutoring platform Tutor.com to ensure that we provide the best service to students on the SparkExplorer platform. The partnership with Tutor.com was good and worked seamlessly to help thousands of scholars from the African immigrant community in the US improve their daily learning, build academic confidence and improve their grades.
Then the unexpected happened. Tutor.com suddenly shut down SparkExplorer and tossed us out into the afternoon sun like weekend laundry when it decided to discontinue the partnership. The stress we felt when this happened was so intense you could use it for a duvet because Tutor.com was the foundation of our tutoring system (see BusinessDay October 19, 2025). Every attempt to change Tutor.com's mind failed. It was a huge disappointment, heartbreaking; This was not and could not be a blessing.
But lessons were learned and natural creativity and flexibility gave birth to Explorer+, Spark Tutor Portal, our own in-house secure tutoring platform.
lessons learned from disappointments
What are your expectations that were not fulfilled this year? What disappointments did you face this year? What lessons did you learn from your disappointments? How have you used those lessons? Perhaps you would like to look back and take stock of this year. Regular retrospection helps us to critically examine some of the activities in which we enjoyed less and determine why this was so, and then make corrections where necessary.
On a societal level, I know many of us have found little or no joy in the harsh economic realities that have prevailed over the past two years: inflation that is running faster than a leopard on the hunt; A foreign currency that is so volatile that a tumbling child looks stable in comparison. Or it is the insecurity and fear associated with it that covers the country like rashes on the body. These are obvious disappointments and cannot be blessings in disguise. No.
But the lessons learned and applied will yield the desired results and become a blessing. For example, the economic situation has made many people think about living within their means by avoiding extravagance; Many people have learned to develop hidden skills and talents and use them to increase their income. Many people have found chanting convenient for better opportunities and a more stable environment. That's called adaptation; What I have always called the ME economy.
Let's be clear: Labeling disappointments as blessings requires a healthy dose of optimism, which is good. But, the problem is that too much optimism can sometimes lead to passivity or inertia.
