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Hannibal and me

Success and failure are the same impostor

Jan 10th 2012, 20:59 by The Economist online

ANDREAS KLUTH, our US West Coast correspondent, discusses why Hannibal failed, how Tiger Woods wins and other lessons of success and failure in his new book

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Contrariansmind

I will certainly add to the "To Read List". I wrote this piece here that I hope you and your readers will enjoy:

Must We Fail Before We Succeed?

We’ve all heard stories of entrepreneurs who achieved great financial success, but endured a litany of failures en route. Some people claim that it’s virtually impossible to build a successful business if you haven’t first had at least one business failure. They reason that we only know how much risk we can safely take when we know how much risk is too much. In short, is there some immutable law, which stipulates that failure is a prerequisite for success?

More here (...)http://contrariansmind.wordpress.com/2012/04/08/must-we-fail-before-we-succeed-in-business/

Dian Cecht

I will buy it too. Interesting concepts. Where lies governance in all this though? Incontinence certainly brought Tiger down to a little pussy.

ashbird

Thank you, Fiammetta Rocco. Thank you, Andreas Kluth.

This content of this audio brings me personally some of the most worthwhile learning materials I have had the pleasure to receive from Prospero since I began following it 18 months ago.

“Most worthwhile” in terms of a moral relevancy in the reality of contemporary world in all aspects.

I will buy and read the book to follow in details Mr.Kluth's thinking. At the moment, based on what I heard in the interview, his view carries a moral force distinctly free of the usual encumbrances of dogma - religious, political, cultural or societal. It compels a new direction on how success is defined, one based equally on means as well as end, and in the end, redefine end. As the title of the piece suggests, both success and its deemed opposite are equivalent impostors when human behaviors are driven solely by external criteria rather than an internal “center of gravity”. This is what I understood what he has said.

My previous comment to Bampbs was made before I listened to the audio. Not that I will take it back. But in context, the distinction he made is not apropos to the exact content of the audio. My apologies there. Needless to say, I have no comment to the first comment.

ashbird in reply to A.K. - The Economist

You are most welcome, A.K.! I have always enjoyed the audios on Prospero, except ONE (the Talese one, and I am certain Fiammetta did not make that one, unless she ate a colony of Trichinosis bacteria in infested pork before she did the post.) You guys do more than SOMEthing right, at least for me.

I have had some brief moments to look at your personal blog. Great, great, great stuff. Thank you for providing the address. I have a ton to say. Perhaps better to say it there than here, especially I need to have some good time to think more carefully before I write.

I just want to note for now it was none other than Sun Tsu, said to be the author of The Art of War (authorship of that work actually is unclear for The Art scholars, but that detail is entirely academic), who said: The best victory is won without a war waged, and if waged, fought. (3rd Chapter. I am grossly paraphrasing from original classical Chinese.)

My own personal metaphor is this: One can pick up a pea by piercing it with a fork; then one can also lift up a pea using two chopsticks without making a hole in the pea. What strategy, what tactic? In these very horrible times all over the world, it is time that all parties in conflict, whatever the conflict is, re-examined what goes into the definition of succeeding and defeating. Another Chinese strategist, a survivor of multiple purges, said, when asked what he thought about the French Revolution, “Only time can tell.”

Need to read your book before I babble on. I have a mouth faster than my brain often times. And that’s not good.

Thanks for your book.

bampbs

Didn't you mean "Triumph and Disaster" ?

bampbs in reply to A.K. - The Economist

I couldn't help but notice. Since 1914 we've had a family tradition of fathers giving their sons a copy of "IF" on their 16th birthdays.

For those who don't know it:

IF

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;
If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son!

Rudyard Kipling, 1895

ashbird in reply to bampbs

Thanks a million, bampbs! I was entirely ignorant if it. Not that it is an excuse, but my father and his father and his father did not know any Kipling. They gave their sons and daughters different things, some good, some bad.

Again, thanks. So now I will give it to my children. It is indeed very nice.

Connect The Dots

Why Hannibal Lost: LOGISTICS. Elephants are less dependable than trucks. Bravery wins battles. Logistics wins wars.

Why Tiger lost: Lost his MOJO. Like Austin Powers, he must recover it. Tiger may be physically well but his ego is down and out. Novak Djokovic remarkable performance in the ATP events last year is more psychological than physical.

A Psychological Barrier may be just as Challenging as a Physical Barrier.

There always is an X variable to any endeavor: Human Weakness and Frailty.

Robots like Voyager are now leaving the universe after 30 years of near perfect rocketry performance and astounding scientific discoveries. And Rover robots have outperformed expectations on Mars. And undersea robots have rediscovered the Titanic at ocean's bottom. And drones are killing more terrorists than any elite army division.

Humans do somethings well but have their limitations. Technology, software and robots do complimentary things well, but again have major shortfalls.

Knowing the difference and applying it smartly, is wisdom.

Hi Connect The Dots,

logistics did have a lot to do with how the Second Punic War was fought, but the elephants played almost no role (they died at the first big battle, the Battle of Trebia).

Tiger Woods: Fiammetta and I barely scratched the surface in our tiny podcast, but in the book I extend Tiger's story much further. If you're interested, he's paired (as implausibly as that will sound to you now) with Hannibal, Harry Truman/Douglas MacArthur, Carl von Clausewitz and Cleopatra in Chapter 6, which is about "Life Strategy and Life Tactics".

About Prospero

Named after the hero of Shakespeare's "The Tempest", an expert on the power of books and the arts, this blog features literary insight and cultural commentary from our correspondents, and includes our coverage of the art market.

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