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Tom White's avatar

“I was starting to take myself seriously for a moment there, which is a really unfortunate situation to find yourself in. Deadly even.” What an opening line. Wow.

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Thomas J Bevan's avatar

Thanks Tom. I had to be honest with the reader from the outset.

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Tom White's avatar

Honesty is the best policy. If you tell the truth, you never have to remember anything.

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Amar Patel's avatar

"Or maybe the point is that failure loses some of its sting when you can laugh at it, and at yourself."

This bit. Goals.

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Thomas J Bevan's avatar

Easier said than done of course! But yeah, laughter is key. Thanks Amar.

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Amar Patel's avatar

Stand-up comedians crossed my mind while reading this part. Those underrated bearers of truth and wisdom.

I shared a "note-to-self" on failure a while back. Not many laughs in there but the quotes are nourishing. Hardly any success peddlers in sight.

https://amarofpatel.substack.com/p/a-cake-could-be-a-tart

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Thomas J Bevan's avatar

'You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it.' ~Johnny Cash

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Matthew Martin's avatar

I’d call that a success! As they say: you don’t fail until you stop trying. I’m trying harder to not find these kind of sayings so corny, because a lot of them are true. Sometimes they’re blindingly bloody obvious but often in the depths of despair we need a reminder and a pithy truism in a nice script font accompanied by a photo of a sunset or something is a nice way to do it. Everyone likes sunsets. The truth is that success and failure are irreversibly entangled in that it’s impossible to have one without the other. That said, it would be nice if the scales were little closer to being balanced once in a while!

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Thomas J Bevan's avatar

Haha. I know exactly what you mean! And yeah, there is something about how the same ideas needing to be reintroduced for each generation hence the demand for slightly different, but essentially always the same pithy truisms. Letting go of (some) cynicism without fully being devoured by the culture of corny mantras has something to be said for it.

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May 27
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Thomas J Bevan's avatar

This is such a great comment, Mauro. And I think having someone share my work on a first date must be the highest form of ‘engagement’ there is! Forget about retweets, having someone foist my words on someone across the restaurant table is where it’s at. Man, I hope that date went well. Haha.

But seriously, I appreciate you having being on board here for such a long time. It means the world to me. Cheers.

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