I grew up in an age where the axiom, “I failed my way to success” was not only accepted but embraced. As kids, we knew that Babe Ruth was not only the most prolific homerun hitter in history, but that he also struck out more than anyone ever. We knew that Helen Keller, at the age of 19 months, became deaf and blind, but that didn’t stop her. She was the first deaf and blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. We knew that Abraham Lincoln had failed in business and in politics and numerous other endeavors prior to his election to the presidency.
We were taught not to regret failing, but to regret not trying. We learned that a life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent in doing nothing.
It seems today, that there is a growing movement to downplay winning, especially with children. The argument is that if someone fails it damages their self-esteem so, therefore, no one should lose and everyone should be a winner just for trying. What balderdash!
One of the great motivators of my time, Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich, put it very succinctly when he wrote, “Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.” Put another way, when we rob ourselves of the opportunity to fail, we rob ourselves of the probability for success. We become embracers of success entitlement rather than understanding that acquiring success always involves risk, perseverance, and, dare I say, failure.
Teaching our children and ourselves to believe in the value of failure is as important as learning a critical occupational skill. In fact, it may be the most important skillset to master in life, for it teaches us that if we fell down yesterday, we need to rise up today. Absent that understanding, we risk becoming the thief of our own stars.
That’s the point of this week’s tale.
Some years ago there was a thief in Hollywood, California that became incredibly famous because he was so crafty. It seemed there was nothing the police could do to catch him. His his target was always the homes of the rich and famous that populated “Tinsel town.” At his peak he was hitting a different star’s home almost once a week. Soon he became as renown as the people he stole from. The media dubbed him, “Burglar of the Stars.” Everywhere one would look, on talk shows, in print newspapers and on television newscasts, the thief was either talked about or was a headliner. Famous comedians made jokes about him and local politicians and law enforcement vowed to catch him.
As his notoriety grew, he became so popular that some people actually wished they would become one of his victims. Because his modus operandi was to rob only the rich and famous, that meant that, if you were his target, you definitely had to be someone important. If you were just a “regular Joe” there was no way the “Burglar of the Stars” would bother breaking into your home.
Then one day, the seemingly miraculous happened. The bandit was actually caught and arrested. It happened on a Saturday night. The thief had selected the home of a star professional football player thinking that he would be travelling to his team’s away-game that would be played on Sunday. What the robber didn’t realize was that a state-of-the-art security system had just been installed in the residence. When he entered, the thief triggered a silent alarm and in a matter of minutes he was surrounded by more than fifty police.
On Monday morning, a news conference was held and the mayor made the official announcement that everyone was anticipating. “The ‘Burglar of the Stars’ had been positively identified as the person arrested and he was now behind bars awaiting his arraignment.”
When the police had searched the home of thief they discovered many of the items that had been previously reported as stolen during his crime spree, but they also found a large number of paintings that had never been listed as stolen. The thief wasn’t talking, so the authorities called in a local art museum curator to attempt to identify and evaluate the paintings. The curator could not attribute an artist, but stated that based on the quality and creativity of the paintings, he felt that surely the artist was of the highest level of ability and that, conservatively, the entire collection could be valued in excess of one million dollars.
When the story of the paintings and their value hit the news, this new mystery now became a widespread topic of discussion. Who owned and who created these masterpieces?
Finally, upon hearing the stories of the enormous value of the discovered trove of art and the search for the owner and the mystery painter, the thief decided to come clean. He explained that he was not always a thief. Before turning to a life of crime, he was a painter, however he was never able to gain any success, fame, or fortune in that field so he abandoned it and decided to turn to a life of crime.
He had grown up as an only child who was doted on by his parents as an art prodigy. In grade and high school his artistic ability was equally lauded by his teachers. He attended art college where he also excelled. Then when he graduated, he immersed himself in creating the collection that was discovered. When he was rejected by the initial galleries he solicited for showings, however, he was devastated. He couldn’t cope with his failure. It led him into a deep depression and, ultimately, to his turning away from creating art to thievery. Now, as he learned how much his paintings were both admired and valued, he was astounded and just couldn’t believe it.
After his trial and his subsequent sentence to twenty years at hard labor without any parole opportunity, the “Burglar of the Stars” was interviewed by a famous reporter from one of the major television networks. The final question the thief was asked was “Who was the biggest person that you ever robbed?”
Pausing while his eyes welled with tears, the could-have-been-famous master artist and now ex-thief of the rich and famous turned to the cameras and replied, “Myself.”
“We are all failures – at least the best of us are.” ? J.M. Barrie
Have an AWE-full Weekend!
William J. “Bill” Bacqué