Success is boring.

[hypothetical fact]

I find myself enjoying failure, not in a masochistic way but out of what it creates. In day to day affairs you can catch a bus to the store, buy groceries, catch a bus home and go to bed. That is a success but that is boring, now if you fail instead you would: try to catch a bus but have it leave without you, walk the distance and nearly get hit by a car/chased by a dog, arrive at the store, buy your groceries and walk home only to find the milk is sour. Most people call this a bad day but I call it an interesting day because like any good story you had a problem and overcame it.

In the bigger picture you may open a store, succeed in business and go through the day to day business of managing finances. But if your store failed you would have to scrape together money/sell your home and face new difficulties as you try to work your way back up. Succeeding in business might make your parents proud but in success you have closed off so many life options and lost challenge and a sense of adventure to every day life.

It is the reason that a billionaire gives money away to charities and buys extravagant items which interest them for the short term before they need to make a new challenge for themselves and start collecting art or cars, similar to a dull child collecting stamps. Alternatively they may try to set a world record but this only serves to highlight the lack of interest in their daily life. Meanwhile the down and out loser at the bar who has lost their family and home could end up cleaning a warehouse, stealing from that warehouse or delivering packages to distant cities for the warehouse. The failure has near infinite opportunities open to them and is forced into those opportunities out of necessity, while the billionaire will always be limited by their own imagination and willingness to spend every day in a new and unique situation.

Am I wrong in this thought pattern or are the most interesting years of anyone's life the years where they must fight for everything.

 

[Labyrinth]

Check your grammar.

I would say that when fighting for it, you learn the most, and find yourself getting the most done. A cushy lifestyle would get so boring after a while. Nothing to challenge you, just sitting around all day on your $10000 lounge suite sipping over-priced fine champagne.

 

[kdragon1010]

Well in this concept if the failure of a very large endeavor is measured by the miserableness (don't even know if that's a word but eh) of those involved, then I can say from firsthand experience our involvement in Iraq has been the biggest epic failure in American history.

 

[Mariena]

Well in this concept if the failure of a very large endeavor is measured by the miserableness (don't even know if that's a word but eh) of those involved, then I can say from firsthand experience our involvement in Iraq has been the biggest epic failure in American history.

But is was fun, right? Hyuk.

 

[errorfied]

Check your grammar.

I would say that when fighting for it, you learn the most, and find yourself getting the most done. A cushy lifestyle would get so boring after a while. Nothing to challenge you, just sitting around all day on your $10000 lounge suite sipping over-priced fine champagne.

yeah, but you could graduate to over-priced fine vodka, and the over-priced fine hookers, etc.

Then you could slowly downward spiral and go to some crazy expensive rehab facility and meet lots of interesting people, and get clean and then you could invite them all to a crazy re-tox party post the rehab detox. Because lord knows people you've met in rehab probably know how to party.

Best thing is, each time you did it you'd probably fuck your memory up so bad, that it would feel like a new experience every time!

 

[Grabtharr]

Your opening paragraph summarized it pretty well for me. If you have a perfect day that goes well, it's a rather bland story to tell all your friends. If, however, you're accosted by a taxi driver while waiting outside a theater showing the Rocky Horror Picture Show while in full costume, that makes for a much more enveloping tale to be shared over beers.

 

[Sennz0r]

Granted, succeeding at getting on a bus in time is a win, but it wasn't interesting to do in the first place. So why would you feel accomplishment for such uninteresting success? You shouldn't, because it's not interesting.

Now your second example leaves me perplexed. You think opening a store and succeeding in business is easy and therefore boring? I heard tales of people starting their own independent businesses and they had to struggle, but they succeeded eventually. I think they didn't have boring time winning that one, eventhough they weren't sure it was going to work out in the first place. It sounds to me like you're oversimplifying succeeding, my friend.
No business starts easy, it's a challenge, and that's what's supposed to keep you going: Challenging yourself. I can imagine if you don't do that you will get some very boring wins.

 

[hypothetical fact]

Sir, you obviously know nothing about success (nor spelling).

Sir, please point out these spelling errors as microsoft word can not.

Granted, succeeding at getting on a bus in time is a win, but it wasn't interesting to do in the first place. So why would you feel accomplishment for such uninteresting success? You shouldn't, because it's not interesting.

Now your second example leaves me perplexed. You think opening a store and succeeding in business is easy and therefore boring? I heard tales of people starting their own independent businesses and they had to struggle, but they succeeded eventually. I think they didn't have boring time winning that one, eventhough they weren't sure it was going to work out in the first place. It sounds to me like you're oversimplifying succeeding, my friend.
No business starts easy, it's a challenge, and that's what's supposed to keep you going: Challenging yourself. I can imagine if you don't do that you will get some very boring wins.

I never mentioned difficulty, yes the journey is the challenge and it is interesting, until they succeed. Afterwards the journey is over and they must make a new one or fall into monotony.

 

[fix-the-spade]

I would say that when fighting for it, you learn the most, and find yourself getting the most done. A cushy lifestyle would get so boring after a while. Nothing to challenge you, just sitting around all day on your $10000 lounge suite sipping over-priced fine champagne.

I agree with you that things you work for tend to be best, but.
It never ceases to amaze me how little imagination people apply to being rich.
Surely having the means to do the things you love is great, even if that is just sitting on your bum drinking fizzy wine. Personally I'd rather get my bike and bugger off round the world for a few years, places to ride, people to meet. It would make for a much more interesting life than "I missed the bus and some idiot nearly ran me over today,"

 

[arcainia]

Wow...you're one optimistic litle dude. I don't find myself enjoying failure that much. Or being poor for that matter.

Also

Granted, succeeding at getting on a bus in time is a win, but it wasn't interesting to do in the first place. So why would you feel accomplishment for such uninteresting success? You shouldn't, because it's not interesting.

This.

 

[maffro]

I won't argue failure is more interesting. But most of your examples suggested that you WOULD overcome the issues presented to you? What about those who don't? Who end up unable to support their families?

And the guy who ends up stealing from a warehouse, prison is interesting. But definately not fun.

Sure, I agree it's more interesting, but success will always be the better option.

 

[Sennz0r]

Granted, succeeding at getting on a bus in time is a win, but it wasn't interesting to do in the first place. So why would you feel accomplishment for such uninteresting success? You shouldn't, because it's not interesting.

Now your second example leaves me perplexed. You think opening a store and succeeding in business is easy and therefore boring? I heard tales of people starting their own independent businesses and they had to struggle, but they succeeded eventually. I think they didn't have boring time winning that one, eventhough they weren't sure it was going to work out in the first place. It sounds to me like you're oversimplifying succeeding, my friend.
No business starts easy, it's a challenge, and that's what's supposed to keep you going: Challenging yourself. I can imagine if you don't do that you will get some very boring wins.

I never mentioned difficulty, yes the journey is the challenge and it is interesting, until they succeed. Afterwards the journey is over and they must make a new one or fall into monotony.

Well yeah of course after you succeed in your endeavour - and this might take years, a whole lifetime, or maybe just a few months - you have reached your goal, and won't be able to develop that particular part of your life any further.
However, if you branch out to other things you can still have new challenges coming your way. You could try a different place to hang out in the weekends, take on a new hobby, could be anything to keep the life you chose for yourself to become too monotonous.

I agree, the guy who works warehouses might have a whole lot more options open to him yet, but you were just like him when you think about it. However you chose to go one way, and some day that road's got to end and you've reached your final destination.
Would you destroy everything you've built succesfully just to make more options available to you yet again? If you feel like you've chosen the wrong way, by all means do it. But I won't throw away something I wanted to achieve just so I can choose something else that I didn't choose to do in the first place.

Succeeding when you're already where you want to be is not impossible, it's just different, since the main quest is as good as over. So pick:

[Start New Game] [Continue]

 

[Sennz0r]

Unnecessary gambles are the way forward. I'm not necessarily talking dangerous gambles, but a little bit of risk adds some spice.

I agree. Hell it's the reason why people have all these thrill rides and extreme sports: so people can feel alive for once without having to put what they built at risk.

Also, no one can let this thread die. You want meaningful discussion? Well here it is.

 

[Bourne Endeavor]

It is the reason that a billionaire gives money away to charities and buys extravagant items which interest them for the short term before they need to make a new challenge for themselves and start collecting art or cars, similar to a dull child collecting stamps.

Incorrect, a vast majority donate to charities because to keep appearance with the public, avoid higher tax rates and numerous other reasons that benefit themselves; not to claim there are none who donate out of the kindness of their heart, it is however not as common as people are made to believe.

Nonetheless I personally am experiencing the struggle to succeed at business and frankly I find little reward of the experience. It has caused far more tension and irritation that anything I would remotely conceive as beneficial. When I succeed - as this is a certain as far as I am concerned - I have other projects by which I will invest my time and money into to further my interests and thus the cycle of chase shall continue however from a positive position of strength instead of clawing along the perimeter of success.

You see for myself personally, there never exists enough success. My goal is to be worth one million dollars before I turn twenty five, however when I achieve this goal although I am ecstatic, the first thought within my mind is ?why not try for two?? which upon working toward that, ?If you can make two million, then four million will be a piece of cake? and so forth. I am always pressing for even greater success when at all possible, be it completing a favorite video game numerous amounts of time, in a variety of ways or chasing a better financial position in life. I am forever wanting more.

 

[mark_n_b]

I disagree. You know when you can tell you're not that successful, when you call it boring. CEOs of fortune 500 company's (for instance) fly all over the world, fire and hire, present to millionaires and business moguls, meet celebrities, get the chance to buy really fast cars, have little to no time to finish the paper work that they need to go through anyway.

For me, I find the better I do, the more involved and active and less mundane my life is. I work every day to reach that next level of success... I long for the day I feel the activity and excitement of true success.

But that's what makes me happy... successful or not, boring or not, it's about being content in this world of ours. So I guess it doesn't matter.

 

[Logan Keller]

It is not the destination that matters, but rather the journey.