The only thing they feared more than failure was success.
– appropriated variant of a common phrase, applied to The Replacements
There are several variations of the above quote from across time; I’m not sure who said something like it originally. There are several people credited with saying something like it. It has been rattling around in my head since I saw it (again), although I cannot say exactly why.
There’s something somewhat terribly romantic in that notion, isn’t there? That idea that failure is somehow more desirable than success, even if driven by a fear response.
It seem an almost fantastical a notion, especially in our modern popular culture where we are encouraged to strive for “success” — however that can be defined. And I’m not 100% convinced that “success” has a valid, concrete definition.
And yet, we are all driven to try to “succeed”.
It brings to mind another favorite quote of mine:
“I’m not afraid to compete. It’s just the opposite. […] Just because I’m so horribly conditioned to accept everybody else’s values, and just because I like applause and people to rave about me, doesn’t make it right. […] I’m sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody. I’m sick of myself and everybody else that wants to make some kind of a splash.”
– Franny, JD Salinger [emphasis is my own]
While the obvious application for these words is with respect to being an entertainer of some kind, or artist or writer… I think the whole idea of being a failure or a nobody being somehow preferable than being a success has some kind of guilty appeal in normal everyday life as well.
Maybe it’s just me… As the man sang: I’m a weirdo/I’m a creep.
I’m curious, O’ Small Coterie of Beloved Readers, what your opinion is with respect to the idea of the appeal of failure over success? Or is it still preferrable to be successful in the end, even if you are first met by failure? What kinds of things does one end up giving up if by choosing one or the other?
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