Bright, brilliant red Ferraris are merely yards away from me. Gleaming with the finest details, wheels, and beautiful leather that probably costs more than an average person’s annual salary, you can say this is Italy’s finest.
The energy at the event is vibrant and exudes success, wealth, and status. These people are not ordinary, they definitely made it during their time on this planet. After roaming the area, returning to the hotel in Chicago made me feel a little discouraged. It’s like “what am I doing with my life?”
Sure those were only cars, materialistic in every sense. But it was the people who made me consider myself a failure.
The theory is, there is a way to build this life (supposedly) faster; fail forward mentality. It is about not worrying to perfect the product at the start, but creating something quickly, learning from it, and fixing along the way. This originated in business and entrepreneurship, with technology company heavy weights utilizing this strategy more frequently* . Companies such as Alphabet, Meta, Amazon and many others are famously known for operating in this type of culture. This is also seen in fields like design, sports, and the arts. Don’t be afraid of failure, this helps accelerate the process and progress to get things done and be successful. It may not work every time, but when it does the rewards are exponential.
The combination of learning and speed gives the advantage to those who are not afraid.
Failure is deemed as terrible in society. As a whole, we associate success by how much money people make and the things they showcase that proves it. Mansion sized-complexes, luxury cars, lavish vacations in St. Barts, and high-end watches such as Piguet (have you seen the absurdly ridiculous prices of these?). Culture also plays a role. The expected traditional way of life seems to be: go to college, get a great paying office job with a retirement plan, have a family, get a big house, and retire happily. In your deceptive dreams. This isn't going to happen for most people nowadays.
I want to be clear that I’m not here to throw shade at successful/rich people, nor materialistic possessions. They absolutely work hard (mostly), sacrifice (time, relationships), are stressed, and among other things but deserve it. There is a focus, grit, thrown in with some toxicity traits that makes them interestingly a blast to be around.
Looking back during that summer day, it was an experience that turned out to be great. Sure I don’t have a six figure car to boast about (just the toy figure), or brag about eating hundreds of dollars worth of fish eggs sprinkled with gold on top. But it was a motivator to change my mentality of what it means to fail.