CCG: SOMETIMES WE RUN INTO THESE VERSIONS OF OURSELVES WHO REACHED GOD TIER FOR FUCK'S SAKE.
CCG: BUT IN SPITE OF BEING *MORE* SUCCESSFUL THAN WE WERE, BY THAT PARTICULAR OBJECTIVE MEASURE
CCG: THEY GET PUNISHED FOR THAT, BECAUSE IT WASN'T "THE THING THAT NEEDED TO HAPPEN"??
CCG: BUT IN SPITE OF BEING *MORE* SUCCESSFUL THAN WE WERE, BY THAT PARTICULAR OBJECTIVE MEASURE
CCG: THEY GET PUNISHED FOR THAT, BECAUSE IT WASN'T "THE THING THAT NEEDED TO HAPPEN"??
—Karkat, Homestuck
"The greatest teacher, failure is."
"The Jean-Luc Picard you wanted to be, the one who did not fight the Nausicaans, had quite a different career from the one you remember. That Picard never had a brush with death, never came face to face with his own mortality, never realized how fragile life is, or how important each moment must be — so his life never came into focus. He drifted through much of his career, with no plan or agenda... going from one assignment to the next, never seizing the opportunities that presented themselves. He never led the away-team on Milika III to save the ambassador, or take charge of the Stargazer's bridge when its captain was killed. And no one ever offered him a command. He learned to play it safe. And he never, ever got noticed by anyone."
— Q, Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Tapestry"
Leslie Jones: All I'm saying is, you youngins running around trying to be somebody, when you don't even know who you are yet! You know what happened to Oprah at twenty-three? She got fired! Imagine firing Oprah.
Taran Killam: Yeah, well, that was a mistake.
Leslie: No it wasn't! 'Cause she wasn't Oprah. She was just some twenty-three-year-old punk who needed to get fired... so she could become Oprah. Sometimes you gotta fail to succeed.
Taran Killam: Yeah, well, that was a mistake.
Leslie: No it wasn't! 'Cause she wasn't Oprah. She was just some twenty-three-year-old punk who needed to get fired... so she could become Oprah. Sometimes you gotta fail to succeed.
—Saturday Night Live, "Weekend Update, May 14, 2016"
