137. The mirage of success on the rearview mirror

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George M Moore Jr, an US veteran bound to a wheelchair by a fighter jet crash during the Vietnam War has become famous by his quote ‘A winner is just a loser who tried one more time’. This was put even more eloquently and much more profoundly by Samuel Beckett in what may be my favourite quote: ‘Ever tried, ever failed, no matter. Try again, fail again, fail better’. They both mean the same, success is the result of many failures, of small steps on the road of improvement. But success is deceiving. We often see it in others only when reached, so we miss the journey. In our culture of celebrity, people enter our field of vision once they succeed, and we don’t see the toil and sweat spent to get there. This creates a false expectation, condemning us to disappointment when we do not succeed easily, tempting us to give up and therefore fail the Moore, or Beckett, test. Understanding success as a process may be the most important tool in your luggage when setting off on the journey of life

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Location: Wiltshire, UK

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