Success and Failure

If you've read my previous posts you know that I consider America to be the best place in the world to live in. One thing that separates us from other nations is the ability it gives people to succeed. Let me offer an example. You've probably seen the TV show American Idol, or at least heard of it. People compete on this show for an opportunity to become a pop-music star, with a record contract and all the trimmings. Everyone who auditions does so with dreams of success. Some people back those dreams with considerable talent, others with much less. Still, anyone who shows up can audition. I could audition, and I couldn't carry a tune in a bucket. If I were to show up to audition I wouldn't be turned away because my parents weren't singers, or because I didn't study singing at the right school. I'd be sent away because I don't sing well. I'd fail, but the only thing standing between me and success would be my own ability.

Some societies force people to be mediocre, to stay as close as possible to the average. People in such societies are forced into a washed-out pastel existence on a faded great background. There are few failures and just as few successes.

We, on the other hand, reward success and we give people the chance to succeed. That chance to succeed is also the chance to fail, because you can't succeed if you don't risk failure. We give people buckets of vibrant, brightly colored paint and a pure white canvas to paint on. Sometimes the results are beautiful, sometimes terrible, but seldom dull and lifeless.

If you want to understand our typically American attitude toward success you could do worse than to read some things that Thomas A. Edison said on the topic. Edison was, of course, one of the most successful inventors in America (which tends to make him one of the most successful inventors in the entire world). He describes success as one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. He said at one point that he hadn't failed, he merely found ten thousand ways to do something that didn't work. He said he knew five thousand ways NOT to build a light bulb. Perhaps most poigantly, he said that most people fail because they didn't realize how close they were to success when they stopped trying.

Once you've eliminated actual barriers to success (for instance Michael Jordan could NEVER be a great jockey no matter how hard he tried) the rest comes down to ability and hard work. If you want to succeed at something, if you have the basic ability to do it, and if you have the will to work hard enough to make it happen you can do so. If that's not a recommendation for the way we do things I don't know what is.