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Since when does 'success' mean 'best', though? If it fulfills your goals - whatever 'it' is and what you set out to do with 'it' - it's successful. When I did not particularly want to be involved in a certain anthology and the editor wouldn't quit bugging me, I sent her what amounted to a 'fuck off' piece. It's in the anthology, so in that sense, it was not a success, but it did get her to quit bugging me, so, ultimately: a success. Even though it sold pretty bad.
I someone paints, say, a landscape and puts it away in their attic, it can still be a success, if all they wanted out of the painting was to (a) do the painting, or (b) do the painting and stash it in the attic. Money and sales are nice, true, but they are neither the qualifier of success (in art or anything), nor absolutely necessary to life.
I consider myself a successful human being every time I get to lie back comfortably and indulge in excellent food, cool company, and/or great music, but I have yet to find any profession where I make lots of money or get huge sales from any of those three things.
Think on this: a successful suicide; no money need be involved, no sales rate going up or down, and you're still dead. But, you did it right, it's done completely, and you're still dead. Ain't nobody going to look at the corpse and argue it wasn't a successful suicide, unless you aren't dead. |
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