The Success Of Failure
Stories
Lectionary Tales For The Pulpit
Series IV Cycle C
Not long ago, Mariah Carey, 31, was released from her contract with EMI/Virgin Records after a series of highly-publicized personal problems.
Carey's last album with EMI had sold only 2 million copies worldwide, far below industry expectations, and her movie Glitter was a box-office flop. EMI Recorded Music chairman/CEO Alain Levy released the following statement: "We have decided that this is the most prudent course of action for EMI. We wish Mariah the best."
It's not like Mariah is suffering too much in the aftermath of these commercial and critical flops. And although it is always somewhat embarrassing to admit that your employer no longer needs your services, in this case Carey walked away with a $28 million buyout of her contract.
She flops, fails, and fizzles -- and gets $28 million.
It's like the CEOs of QWEST, ENRON, WORLDCOM and other major corporations in this country. They're paid in the millions of dollars, not to speak of stock and stock options and other perks. And when the company tanks, it's like they hit an ejection button that shoots them out into the stratosphere of blue financial security, and they float back to earth with a parachute full of obscene amounts of money. Meanwhile, former employees are without jobs and trying to make ends meet.
Sometimes, failure can be one's greatest success.
In fact, this is the new mantra on the motivation speaking tour these days. Corporate trainers and meeting planners are not interested any more in success stories. They want to hire speakers who have experienced some colossal failure and lived to tell about it. They don't want the guy that climbed Mount Everest; they want the guy who tried to climb Mount Everest, who got within about 100 yards of the top, but failed.
David McNally, 54, attempted to get a new oil additive going called Sta-Power. At the height of his success, he was driving a Rolls-Royce and had a beautiful home. But at 28 he was broke after the company collapsed. Now he speaks about his business failure for about $5,000 a pop. His primary message? "Failure in business or career doesn't condemn you to failure." If you never take another risk, never make another attempt, never try to get off the mat, then -- you've failed. But failure does not a failure make.
None of this self-help mumbo-jumbo was going through Hosea's mind when God gave him his next set of instructions. Here's the plan, God said: I want you to marry a street slut and raise her illegitimate children. This could not have been a career high for Mr. Hosea. If he can hang on, he's a sure bet for the motivational speaking tour in a few years, but right now, he can't be very happy.
Of course, when we go through times of incomprehensible grief or confusion, we cannot know the mind or the ways of God. In Hosea's case, God used his life as a living tableau of how God existed in relation to a people who had prostituted themselves with strange gods.
And Hosea got a book deal after all. His contribution to an ancient anthology is in the most widely translated and published book in the history of the world. He, too, succeeded at failure.
Carey's last album with EMI had sold only 2 million copies worldwide, far below industry expectations, and her movie Glitter was a box-office flop. EMI Recorded Music chairman/CEO Alain Levy released the following statement: "We have decided that this is the most prudent course of action for EMI. We wish Mariah the best."
It's not like Mariah is suffering too much in the aftermath of these commercial and critical flops. And although it is always somewhat embarrassing to admit that your employer no longer needs your services, in this case Carey walked away with a $28 million buyout of her contract.
She flops, fails, and fizzles -- and gets $28 million.
It's like the CEOs of QWEST, ENRON, WORLDCOM and other major corporations in this country. They're paid in the millions of dollars, not to speak of stock and stock options and other perks. And when the company tanks, it's like they hit an ejection button that shoots them out into the stratosphere of blue financial security, and they float back to earth with a parachute full of obscene amounts of money. Meanwhile, former employees are without jobs and trying to make ends meet.
Sometimes, failure can be one's greatest success.
In fact, this is the new mantra on the motivation speaking tour these days. Corporate trainers and meeting planners are not interested any more in success stories. They want to hire speakers who have experienced some colossal failure and lived to tell about it. They don't want the guy that climbed Mount Everest; they want the guy who tried to climb Mount Everest, who got within about 100 yards of the top, but failed.
David McNally, 54, attempted to get a new oil additive going called Sta-Power. At the height of his success, he was driving a Rolls-Royce and had a beautiful home. But at 28 he was broke after the company collapsed. Now he speaks about his business failure for about $5,000 a pop. His primary message? "Failure in business or career doesn't condemn you to failure." If you never take another risk, never make another attempt, never try to get off the mat, then -- you've failed. But failure does not a failure make.
None of this self-help mumbo-jumbo was going through Hosea's mind when God gave him his next set of instructions. Here's the plan, God said: I want you to marry a street slut and raise her illegitimate children. This could not have been a career high for Mr. Hosea. If he can hang on, he's a sure bet for the motivational speaking tour in a few years, but right now, he can't be very happy.
Of course, when we go through times of incomprehensible grief or confusion, we cannot know the mind or the ways of God. In Hosea's case, God used his life as a living tableau of how God existed in relation to a people who had prostituted themselves with strange gods.
And Hosea got a book deal after all. His contribution to an ancient anthology is in the most widely translated and published book in the history of the world. He, too, succeeded at failure.
