Failing Small...

I have this friend who I think writes beautifully. I don't think he'd want to be identified, so let's leave that aside. But the title of this blog refers to something that he wrote once..

He called the phenomenon "failing small"...

Failing small is when you are called upon to exhibit courage and emotional honesty and you shrink from that calling and do something flippant or shallow. Maybe you go with the flow when you know it's not true to yourself. Or you make the safe choice knowing you'll regret it. You fail small.

You fail big by throwing yourself into what you do with all of your energy. When you fail big you make the bold choices you really want to make, the ones that define who you are. You go all in and bluff life for everything in the pot. Sometimes you win, but even when you lose, you still win. That's failing big. And it's usually better than failing small.

Why am I remembering all this? It's because of something that happened a few months ago, and which has been pricking me a little for a while..

A few months ago, I reviewed MBA essays for a friend. They were nicely written but as I moved along, a particular line caught my line. In fact, I think it was actually a whole paragraph. It had been lifted off directly from a TV serial. The lines were beautiful, they had caught my fancy when I first heard them, and that is why I recognized them immediately. They fit into the essay perfectly.. but they weren't original.

I mentioned this to the friend and he replied, "Yeah, that TV show wastes a lot of my time but sometimes it provides some great inspiration..."

This wasn't inspiration and the reply troubled me. There was nothing in the essay to indicate to the reader that the lines weren't original. Anyways, I didn't say anything, these things happen sometimes and even the line of what's acceptable seems to have changed. That friend got an admit from the target business school (and let's face it, it's not like those couple of lines got him in) and I wish him the very best.

But I think I failed small...