The failure and success paradigm

"Every mediocre success is a failure, but every great failure is actually an immense success"
I never had a very good name memory. Probably that's why I was never good in History, nor would I ever be good at acting. That's the reason I couldn't tell you who said the words quoted a little earlier, but sure enough, I didn't have the brightness to invent them myself. One of the speakers that had the kindness to share their life's experience with us at Leaders School 7 said it, and ever since I heard it, it kept scratching my thoughts every now and then, with a perseverance that made it quite hard to overlook.
Since I was a little girl, my mother inoculated the "learn from your mistakes" psychology in my childish brain.
I grew up, and the number of mistakes grew also, but my mothers words remain engraved in the back of my skull. She always wanted me to be the best, but I would easily settle up with the second place in many situations. Maybe that makes me a better loser than others, but a loser nonetheless. As I look back in time, I realize that the places where I had my best results, are actually the fields where I wished to "win" so bad, I would give it my best to reach the goal I aimed for. And then I draw my conclusions: set your goal high, but set it where you know your heart wishes it. Otherwise your road toward that goal will be, in the best case scenario, paved with mediocre successes, and probably some mediocre failures too.
I don't want to be just another sheep in the flock, as much as I like sheep. I want to live my life up to my expectations, because one should ask of himself more than any other would. So I'm setting my goals high now, and I shall fail, and learn, and succeed, and do my best to have them all in the extreme. We need less mediocrity, and more excellence.