One of the few things I have never been afraid of in life is failing.
Part of this comes, I suppose, from growing up having hobbies which at the time were not mainstream - reading, comic books, role-playing games, music, drama. One learns to enjoy them in the quiet and silence of one's self or with a few selected friends. A side benefit of all of this is the fact that one can fail at them without any sort of social or public implications. You are the only one that knows about the mistake and so you can fix it.
When you launch into the world, you carry that with you.
I have failed at any number of things. I have failed at a business. I have failed at entertainment. I have failed at growing any number of vegetables. I have failed at friendships. I have failed of my commitments to God. I have failed at my job, sometimes spectacularly.
I have failed a lot.
On the other hand, I can generally say that my failures were honest. I either gave the best effort I had or, barring that, simply decided it was no longer for me. Very seldom if ever did I fail because I gave less than my full effort.
Have I had successes? Yes. And for the most part they, too, have been honest successes where the success was earned through effort. Occasionally though, I have been the recipient of a success I did not truly earn - not by lying or misrepresentation, but by riding the coattails of of others.
These are not my best moments. For those most part they all happened years and years ago.
But it is one thing when it is an isolated incident. It is another when it becomes a practice.
Succeeding by fraud is always a risk. There are always shortcuts to success. A very few are legitimate. Many are not. And yet, in a society and culture where success is measured as one of the (if not the) main marker for if one is "good" or "successful", the temptation can be very strong indeed.
We are familiar with this, of course, "The End justifies the Means" being perhaps the most pithy quote of our time in this respect. Substitute "Success justifies fraud" makes it even more pithy.
I know, I know - the temptation is to apply this purely politically. But is not just political. It is societal. It is now ingrained into such so much of society, in every stripe and format and belief. Being on top and achieving the results you want is the most important thing. How you get there is less important.
Except.
Except that there is a key difference. In all of my failures or even in my successes that I earned, the groundwork that they were built on was stable. I never had to worry someone was going to go back and find an issue or that they would break under the weight of usage. It was only with my unearned successes that this was a risk.
And thus, the risk with all successes with fraud.
Because all successes with fraud have a built in failure mode, just like an unshielded port that leads to the main reactor. The flaw is there, just waiting for the right set of circumstances or the right person to be triggered. When it does, everything built above it collapses, often with devastating results.
It is not that those that succeed with fraud get away with it. It is just that sometimes one has to wait a very long, long time to see those final results manifest themselves. And the longer it goes, the greater the crash often seems to be.
Failing with honor has the potential to be a lesson. After we have absorbed enough lessons and used them to modify our behavior, the odds of success rise until it approaches certainty.
ReplyDeleteSucceeding through fraud depends on finding a judge who can be bribed or swayed by beauty or cowed by intimidation. Someday an applicant with deeper pockets will show up or somebody who is younger and more beautiful or an opponent who is more ruthless and more intimidating.
ERJ, I had never thought of your first concept before - but you are right. Continued failure without any reason to be ashamed of failing allows one to reconsider the issues that brought about the failure - and move to success.
Delete"Purchased" success - be it through actual money, influence, or by taking advantage - will only last until someone has more of that than you can.
That, of course, and the fact that no-one can take success rightly earned away.
Becoming number one, no matter the method or the cost. If the method is based on fraud, then there is a lack of morality involved. A very thoughtful post TB, serious reading today to kick off the long holiday weekend.......... :)
ReplyDeleteNylon12 - We (the royal we - not us sensible people, of course) have come to value the top slot above all else and have not asked the meaningful question "Is it worth it"? And I would argue that nothing that is built without morality ultimately succeeds or lasts.
DeleteI think everyone at some point succeeds by riding coattails. I wouldn't call that a fraud. Fraud when be hyping up that success later and leaving out the coattail part.
ReplyDeletePerhaps not Ed. Although certainly I have felt as if from time to time.
DeleteInteresting thought exercise today. I always hated to fail. I'm a frustrated perfectionist I guess. Over time, I learned that failure for me was when I gave up and quit. And quitting makes me sick to my stomach. I may take a couple years off, but until I die, I'm not done yet.
ReplyDeleteAs to being swept to success, that is an interesting concept. Nearly every position I've held professionally was a solitary one. The only broadcast engineer at the station, 24/7/365 coverage of my work. One of 25 field service reps that worked on our systems, 24/7/365. But there were folks that I learned from. Folks that took me under their wing and encouraged or directed or pushed me farther than I knew I could go.
It may be a gold ornament now, but it took time and many skilled people along the way to remove the dross, refine the metal and sculpt it into a thing of beauty. Remembering the shoulders we stand on should be easy to admit. Maybe that would be the sign: I did it by myself.
Show me a self made man, and I will show you the product of unskilled labor.
STxAR, I do not really like to fail at all. I suppose I have just come to terms with the fact that I do fail, so I might as well enjoy the ride.
DeleteIndeed, we benefit greatly from others. But unless we take the advice and act on it and internalize it, the advice and training of others will do nothing for us. Perhaps a shared outcome.
The most important thing is being honorable at least in my opinion to yourself at the bare minimum of course.
ReplyDeleteGood point, and one that I did not address at all. I guess in my world, that goes without saying.
Delete