Note to a disconsolate friend.

Getting the ideal job.

The perfect job.

The job you’ve always wanted.

Very few people get that.

Almost no one gets it on their timetable.
I am not playing centerfield for the Yankees.

I never will.

I am not the CEO or even the CCO of my company.

Also, I do not have the nicest apartment.

The shiniest car.

Or the best abs.

Does this mean I am a failure?

That I am a loser?

That all my work doesn’t make it to Cannes?

And some of it, occasionally, sucks.

That I don’t hit the highest notes in every aria I sing.

The trick I think is not always getting what you want.

But in always doing your best, making the most of the opportunities you do get.

You have a long life and career ahead of you.

And you have already achieved so much.

That’s what put you in position to be turned down in the first place.

Samuel Becket wrote that the secret of success is to:

“Fail. Fail. And fail again better.”

As long as you are ambitious and shooting for the stars

there will always be things you come up short in.

That’s life.

And that’s how things are accomplished.

If you start at the top of the mountain,

there’s only one direction you can go.

PS. Nothing you shoot for is perfect.

That ideal job, has many aspects to it that suck.

That’s also life.

Try not to idealize that which you don’t have at the expense of what you do have.

That gets you nowhere and is frustrating.