Friday, April 06, 2007

The Winners (eight words)

willing to do
that
which you were not

15 comments:

Wendy said...

Such truth.

steakbellie said...

isnt it though?
this one keeps sticking in my head. I actually like something I wrote!

Chris the Hippie said...

I like it too.

Anonymous said...

What about if its not something that you were willing to do or not do, but capable of doing or not doing. For example, I can never win at something that I'm simply not capable of doing.

steakbellie said...

true
we all have a spectrum of different potentials. the guys at the top have the talent, AND work at it in ways you might not want to (or be aware of for that matter)

all generaliaations of course....

Anonymous said...

Ah, but by redefining capability as potential you're actually saying that everyone is capable of everything at some level, if we were only willing to work at it.

Success = Potential + Effort

I'm saying there's another piece.

If Capability is True, Then Success = Potential + Effort

However...

If Capability is False, Then Success is False.

Somehow I just became a logic nerd.

steakbellie said...

thats shit.

i dont believe everyone is capable of everything.

not everyone is equal.

Success depends on Potential + Effort + Happinstance.

If you're even in the game you have some combination of the three. If you have two people with similar potential, the guy who's gonna win (over time) is the fucker who is willing to take it to another level.

Chris the Hippie said...

I dunno... Success (in my mind) also often entails a certain willingness to take risks.

I have the potential, and I've exerted the effort, but I never took the risk to move to a location with a better economic outlook; ergo I'm not exactly a winner. (I'm not a loser, either - I'm just a schmuck doing the best he can.) I'm like the monkey who will never swing freely through the trees because I refuse to let go of one branch before I grab another.

Anonymous said...

Steakbellie - You're contradicting yourself. :) If you add "happinstance" to the mix - essentially luck - then you have to allow for the possibility that "Happinstance" will be the final determiner.

Two guys, equally capable, with equal potential and who equally "take it to another level" - luck wins the day.

Here's a new 8-Words:

All Things Being Equal
The Lucky Will Survive

:p

steakbellie said...

nope not contradicting myself.

I used the word "over time" to temper the effects of random factors. In a single instance the result could be enhanced by a random factor, (say the glue in a runners sneaker comes apart) but in the long run, equal bad & good happinstance will occur to all parties.

Anonymous said...

That is, of course, assuming that the event is repeatable with no uncontrolled variables - or that it is repeatable at all. Some things only happen once.

steakbellie said...

well then you should have trained then, huh?

Anonymous said...

There is no luck training.
Or, to use your example, there is no predicting the glue in a runner's sneaker coming apart. Just bad luck.

steakbellie said...

I only included the 'Happinstance' factor to head you off from it's eventual addition. I now regret it deeply and yearn for you tragically.

"Luck Favors the Prepared Mind"!!!!

Anonymous said...

We're moving to citing sources then?

"Luck is what you have left over after you give 100 percent." - Langston Coleman

"...always try for something that has never been done or that others have tried and failed. Then sometimes, with great luck, he will succeed." - Ernest Hemmingway

"Good luck beats early rising." - Anonymous, Irish Proverb

But if quoting others is what we're reduced to then this could go on for quite some time.