HealthCommentary

Exploring Human Potential

7 & 7: Success vs. Failure

REFLECTION:

Every person seems to have her own formula for success. For success takes on as many forms and features as there are creatures on this earth. My success is not yours, nor should it be since I am me and you are you. But whatever is your measure, ability and good fortune, persistence makes more likely your success. Failure marks each and every path. And too much success too quickly has destroyed men even as they smiled and rejoiced. For undeserved, doesn’t success have the right to say, “What then makes you deserved?” Creating laughter. Earning another’s respect, a child’s love, a critic’s grudging approval. Endured betrayals. Beauty appreciated. A healthy child made by you. A land enriched by you. A social ill repaired by you. One life the better because of you. A good name established and maintained. Being right more than wrong. Grandchildren who run to greet. Friends who lean on you. Doing your best is fine, but if the problem remains, is that the best you can do? Having it all means nothing. Better to settle for less. Is it possible to believe that you might find the strength to rise after every fall, that you might stride with strength while surrounded by weakness, that you might sow what you reap? It is.

MUSES:

Success is that old ABC – ability, breaks and courage.
Charles Luckman

You always pass failure on the way to success.
Mickey Rooney

Success has made failures of many men.
Cindy Adams

Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
Sir Winston Churchill

To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people, and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics, and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty; To find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To know that even one life has breathed easier because you lived. This is to have succeeded.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you have a good name, if you are right more often than you are wrong, if your children respect you, if your grandchildren are glad to see you, if your friends can count on you and you can count on them in time of trouble, if you can face your God and say, “I have done my best,” then you are a success.
Ann Landers

It is no use saying, ‘we are doing our best.’ You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.
Sir Winston Churchill

If I had known what it would be like to have it all, I might have been willing to settle for less.
Lily Tomlin

Inside of a ring or out, ain’t nothing wrong with going down. It’s staying down that’s wrong.
Muhammad Ali

If you always live with those who are lame, you will yourself learn to limp.
Latin Proverb

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Galatians 6:7

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