Success vs Failure
mod
Ok, this is just the first half. Just to catch your attention with the visual. the Vimeo link below is the full version, and better quality
[ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkREt4ZB-ck[/ame]
http://vimeo.com/1711302 Full video, 20 minutes long.
Ok, so everyone needs to walk this video. it is J.K. Rowling addressing Harvard on their commencement. VERY good speech, especially for those who are about to graduate.
I dont want to ruin it too much, but she talks about failure and how it is good. Also, about how to each person, failure and success is different.
So, i was wondering. What is your definition of failure? Success? and do you have any stories of "hitting rock bottom"?
For me....Failure is when I give up. Until that point, I cant fail. I may not succeed, but it will never be a failure.
[ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkREt4ZB-ck[/ame]http://vimeo.com/1711302 Full video, 20 minutes long.
Ok, so everyone needs to walk this video. it is J.K. Rowling addressing Harvard on their commencement. VERY good speech, especially for those who are about to graduate.
I dont want to ruin it too much, but she talks about failure and how it is good. Also, about how to each person, failure and success is different.
So, i was wondering. What is your definition of failure? Success? and do you have any stories of "hitting rock bottom"?
For me....Failure is when I give up. Until that point, I cant fail. I may not succeed, but it will never be a failure.
Replies
Failure to me is well the same as you, when I stop trying. I may not succeed but I don't fail as long as I know I did my best. Ive been watching a lot of the Olympics lately and they talk a lot about how the only thing you can do is eliminate all the ifs, ands, and buts. If you do that then if you still don't win gold you can look back and say at least I did everything in my power to win.
Success is just that time where you're in the right place at the right time and good things happen to you, if you try your hardest all the time, every time, then success has good odds of happening to you eventually. Good things have a habit of being more memorable than bad things, that's why I think successful people feel like they can look back on their lives as being good, it doesn't mean that nothing bad ever happened to them, its almost as if they just forgot about them.
That's the way I see things at least.
As for rock-bottom stories, I have had a mere grace of it. After I had completed my first year of college, my mother, who was later diagnosed manic depressive and locked into a mental institution, decided to throw me on the street because I was apparently "the reincarnation of Hitler and a henchman of Satan". This was revealed to her in a vision, or something.
Needless to say, I was thrilled that my father picked up the phone that night, and came to pick me and my stuff up.
Oh and she is safely medicated and is not locked up anymore, recovering nicely. So its not all that bad.
But aside from that, I have to this day managed to stay alive and do somewhat well.
I guess the point is, that when you experience any kind of peril, be it physical or psychological; You will emerge stronger on the other side, with a heightened capacity to appreciate when something is going well. It just sucks, that sometimes, shit has to hit the fan before you can appreciate sitting in front of a rotary device that is not showering you in steamy, putrid debris.
Although on the whole I consider myself a success, there are various ambitions I hold that have yet to be realized. I want to write my own novel. I want to create my own animated mini-series. I want to produce my own video game. Until I achieve these goals, I will always see myself as a failure.