Three Days of Happiness

183
“Hmm. Guess you just have to be reliable about doing things. That’s
not something I can do, though. I guess you just see things you
“can” do in front of you, and you get good at staying on top of
them. That what I think at my age.”
“I see,” I nodded.
“But,” he said as if denying what he just said, “there’s something
more important than that. And that’s not to trust the advice of
somebody like me. Somebody who never achieved anything talking
about success is just somebody who’s just blind to their own
failings. So don’t follow my example. I can’t even understand why
exactly I failed. Don’t have to show any respect to what a guy like
that says.
“...People who’ve had lots of failures talk about those failures as if
to imply that if they have another life, they’ll be a big success. After
facing all that hardship, they think they won’t mess up again. But
they’re all - me included, of course - making a fundamental mistake.
Failures know a lot about failure, sure. But knowing failure is
completely different from knowing success. Fixing your mistakes
doesn’t mean success takes their place - you’ve just got a point to
start at, is all. That’s something failures don’t understand.”
I found it a little funny remembering how Miyagi had said
something very similar.
“They have only just arrived at the starting line. They have only just
regained their composure after a long losing streak. Mistaking that
as a chance to turn things around will do them no good.”