The Ballad of Irving.

Almost daily I get emails and phone calls from friends and acquaintances who don't finish first--who don't work for Crispin, who aren't honored by the One Club or Communication Arts and thus they regard themselves as failures.

This is from a Preston Sturges movie--a romp about success and failure called "Christmas in July." "...no system could be right where only half of 1% were successes and all the rest were failures - that wouldn't be right. I'm not a failure. I'm a success. And so are you, if you earn your own living and pay your bills and look the world in the eye."

Here is another rumination of failure and success:
/http://www.stinalisa.com/Irving.html

I hate to be prosaic, but success comes from trying and trying and trying. Working and fighting and fighting some more. Success comes from not going gentle into that good night and not ever, ever giving up.