1:10 ratio

Is winning once out of ten a success—or a failure?

In life, I’ve learned countless things I never use in my daily life: physics, chemistry, biology. Looking back, the ratio might be 1:10—out of every ten things I learn, perhaps only one finds real application. On paper, that’s a “failure rate” of 90%.

But think about it. Imagine you’re buying a house. You might inspect ten properties but purchase only one. Is that failure—or success? Sometimes we need to learn ten things just to discover the one thing we truly enjoy doing.

I don’t see failure as a mistake, but as part of the process that leads to success. I can accept a high ratio of failure to success—as long as the success is big enough to outweigh them all.

One win can erase nine losses.