Million to one...
I tend to measure my life by my failures...I tried to avoid them for a long while, but once it became clear that that was impossible, I just set out to fail in grander and grander fashions (though ironically, I'm sort of failing at that too). The failing part still sucks, but I figure it requires a certain amount of success just to put yourself in the position to fail truly spectacularly, so at least something good had to happen on the way to hitting rock bottom again. And though success might be a million to one shot, in the immortal words of Lloyd Christmas "...so you're telling me there's a chance."
There's a couple quotes I've always loved, Winston Churchill said: "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm", and Thomas Edison said: "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." I googled the Churchill quote, just to make sure I had it right, and I found this page Failure Quotes, it's full of quotes about failure from some pretty respectable folks. Just a good reminder that failure's a constant, but it's not insurmountable...
A friend of mine from high school is a musician, and his life would make a great movie I think. He lives in NYC and mostly does touring Broadway shows, but he just put out his first CD of originals and did a show back in his hometown tonight. Making it as a musician is a million to one shot too, and there are lots of lonely nights playing in empty bars. Tonight though was what makes it all worthwhile, the place was packed and filled with energy, his set was fantastic, and he spent an hour signing CD's, shirts and a few random body parts. You've never seen two prouder parents either...I'm really glad I got to go, and I hope he has a lot more nights like this.
As tends to happen to me though, failure followed me there. The details are irrelevant, but in keeping with the theme, I'd say it was at least a million to one shot the two of us would end up in there...humility is good for me though...but I think my last remaining grain of self esteem might have blown away...
If we can get a win Monday night though, I might get some of it back. We're 10-0 and in the quarterfinals, but we have a mountain left to climb. Though this is the most successful season we've ever had, I really haven't enjoyed a bit of it til now. It's that whole failing spectacularly thing I guess, the rest of the season was all about getting here, and now the fun begins. I learned a lot from my past mistakes though, so no matter what happens from here on I'm going to be able to feel good about what we accomplished with the kids this year. Winning a championship really isn't going to change anybody's life, but putting forth the effort to try can, and in that respect we've already succeeded...but oh, a win would still be nice...I better go watch some tape...
There's a couple quotes I've always loved, Winston Churchill said: "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm", and Thomas Edison said: "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." I googled the Churchill quote, just to make sure I had it right, and I found this page Failure Quotes, it's full of quotes about failure from some pretty respectable folks. Just a good reminder that failure's a constant, but it's not insurmountable...
A friend of mine from high school is a musician, and his life would make a great movie I think. He lives in NYC and mostly does touring Broadway shows, but he just put out his first CD of originals and did a show back in his hometown tonight. Making it as a musician is a million to one shot too, and there are lots of lonely nights playing in empty bars. Tonight though was what makes it all worthwhile, the place was packed and filled with energy, his set was fantastic, and he spent an hour signing CD's, shirts and a few random body parts. You've never seen two prouder parents either...I'm really glad I got to go, and I hope he has a lot more nights like this.
As tends to happen to me though, failure followed me there. The details are irrelevant, but in keeping with the theme, I'd say it was at least a million to one shot the two of us would end up in there...humility is good for me though...but I think my last remaining grain of self esteem might have blown away...
If we can get a win Monday night though, I might get some of it back. We're 10-0 and in the quarterfinals, but we have a mountain left to climb. Though this is the most successful season we've ever had, I really haven't enjoyed a bit of it til now. It's that whole failing spectacularly thing I guess, the rest of the season was all about getting here, and now the fun begins. I learned a lot from my past mistakes though, so no matter what happens from here on I'm going to be able to feel good about what we accomplished with the kids this year. Winning a championship really isn't going to change anybody's life, but putting forth the effort to try can, and in that respect we've already succeeded...but oh, a win would still be nice...I better go watch some tape...