The Failures Of Many
I asked a friend yesterday, if there was anything he didn't suck at. He pointed out, rather logically, that we don't do something just to be bad at it. If we persist at the activity long enough, we will eventually stop sucking.
I find it rather ironic that while it was a cognitively reasoned reply, the nature of it made it seem like he took it more as a compliment; it didn't really answer the question. Many people in the world can struggle to do something for years and still not get any good at it. If he was such an exception, maybe I was simply marvelling at his superior ability.
I wasn't.
His ability itself is unquestionable. But success always comes down to many factors. And more importantly, why we do something can also come down to many factors. We don't necessarily like what we have to do. And we don't necessarily want to be good at it either.
Perhaps I am world-weary and cynical, but it strikes me that I have chosen to suck at many things, because I do not shirk away from responsibilities that have been forced upon me. There is a fine distinction there. I am simply not cut out for certain tasks. And on certain occasions, I have no desire to carry them out. But I *failed* in them, because I was made to accomplish them. It is expected of me. They were given to me as duties, and I did not fight and struggle and refuse. Instead I took them on, and did not succeed.
That doesn't make me a great man. But if you're not bad at anything because you somehow had the luxury of not having been forced to do something you couldn't or wouldn't, that doesn't make you any greater either.
People rarely succeed at things that they don't like, or want. Their failures are much better indicators of who they are, rather than who they make themselves to be.
