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I've been failing my entire life. Anytime I'm successful, I move the bar to restart the process of my next failure. I'm very satisfied with my life as I've ach

I've been failing my entire life. Anytime I'm successful, I move the bar to restart the process of my next failure. I'm very satisfied with my life as I've achieved 10x what I ever thought possible. I'm future failing startup #8 at the moment. It's been dragging out a few years but I'll get there, or fail again! I always looked at failure as a learning process, not a function of who you are. Hell, if you won all the time, it would get boring. So instead of picking easy things so you can always be a winner, I pick things that are beyond my reach (in my estimation) and attempt to achieve those goals. Life is what you make of it, it can be like a rollercoaster at times and a lazy day on the beach at others. My biggest issue in my mid 40s is the "been there done that" attitude. Success isn't a destination IMO, it's a temporary culmination of prior good choices. And it can go away at anytime with as few as one bad decision.

zitterbewegung 9y ago
Yea, society is obsessed with the glorification that you get rich quick and achieve success on your first try. Everyone doesn't even talk about how many things they tried to be successful. Or when they were lucky and things just worked out. On the other hand the playing field is not even at all and the luck of being born in a place that is beneficial or to people that have benefits that others don't have is not to be discounted either.
- justherefortart 9y ago
  Agreed. My father owns his own business. My grandfather helped him after it failed 2-3x. My father however, "did it all by himself". Bootstraps and whatnot. He was lamenting to my brother a few years ago that he has no legacy. Well, you fucked over everyone in your family, including your kids to get yourself ahead. So yeah, you'll die rich and unloved. Surprise outcome!
mcguire 9y ago
Could be worse...you could be General Ulysses Grant (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_S._Grant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_S._Grant) who was very successful at doing one thing that was vitally important, but only in a limited time and place, and pretty much a failure at everything else he tried.

zitterbewegung 9y ago

Yea, society is obsessed with the glorification that you get rich quick and achieve success on your first try. Everyone doesn't even talk about how many things they tried to be successful. Or when they were lucky and things just worked out. On the other hand the playing field is not even at all and the luck of being born in a place that is beneficial or to people that have benefits that others don't have is not to be discounted either.

justherefortart 9y ago
Agreed. My father owns his own business. My grandfather helped him after it failed 2-3x. My father however, "did it all by himself". Bootstraps and whatnot. He was lamenting to my brother a few years ago that he has no legacy. Well, you fucked over everyone in your family, including your kids to get yourself ahead. So yeah, you'll die rich and unloved. Surprise outcome!

mcguire 9y ago

Could be worse...you could be General Ulysses Grant (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_S._Grant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_S._Grant) who was very successful at doing one thing that was vitally important, but only in a limited time and place, and pretty much a failure at everything else he tried.