Category Archives: failure

Feb 11 1 comments
failure, Scott Adams

Embarrassment #5 – Predicting Success

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Don’t be embarrassed if you missed, but it’s been ‘Embarrassment Week’ at The Napkin Dad Daily!

I was thinking yesterday what keeps me from being more successful in my various efforts to create my Napkin Dad transnational mega global world dominating corporation and I think it’s because, cliche of all cliches, I am afraid of failure.  What? who me?  Not me.  I try all sorts of things. I have done the most outrageous things to get jobs, publicity, girlfriends, wives, kids (well, ok, what I did to get kids wasn’t all that outrageous).  

But what I really mean is what this quote is saying.  I don’t like being embarrassed.  Now, that is funny because anyone who knows me will tell you I don’t get embarrassed easily.  I was raised in a pretty immodest family so being naked never freaked me out.  I can talk about any topic under the sun, in most any circumstances, and I won’t become embarrassed.  I will try physical or mental challenges that I have no reason attempting. IN general, I don’t think about embarrassment.

But here is the key:  I don’t know it’s embarrassment that I am feeling and fearing. All I know is I don’t want to do something. I avoid it. I distract myself.  I do work-arounds.  I do it myself instead of asking for help for fear of looking stupid in ways I think the person I am asking would never think I was.  

There is one quote I didn’t use this week that I really liked. It’s by Lynn Swann, the famous football player for the Pittsburgh Steelers.  Here it is: ‘Some people play very, very well just so they won’t get embarrassed.’  People tend to be one or the other, the high achiever to avoid embarrassment, or the non-achiever. But I am both, just depends what day it is.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily

Quote by Scott Adams, 1957 – not dead yet, American cartoonist, creator of Dilbert.

One year ago today on The Napkin Dad Daily: Everyone is Kneaded

Feb 10 5 comments
belief, failure, faith, Sam Ewing, Sports

Embarrassment #4 – Predicting Failure

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Another day, another embarrassment.  It’s STILL Embarrassment Week!

It’s easy to tell someone to avoid predicting failure.  That’s the solution to the embarrassment above after all, right?  Yes, maybe.  But don’t you also abrogate your responsibility if you aren’t honest in your evaluation of someone else’s chances of success, if they ask you for your opinion?  

All one has to do is look at all the poor schmucks who have auditioned on American Idol thinking they have great voices.  Who gave them that idea?  parents, friends, loved ones who were either tone deaf or unable to be honest in telling them the truth about their ability.  Being a coward in communicating with a friend is being no friend at all.

On the other hand, what’s the point of making some ignorant or snap judgment about someone’s abilities?  There is room for giving someone hope, for encouraging and believing they can accomplish what they are setting out to do.  With me, if I am not completely sure, if there is any glimmer of hope, I always err on the side of ‘you can’ over ‘you can’t.  
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily

Quote by Sam Ewing, 1920-2001, American writer and humorist

One year ago today at The Napkin Dad Daily




Dec 05 0 comments
creativity, Cynthia Heimel, failure, genius

>When In Doubt, Make

>I was going to choose a quote on failure because I totally blew part of a photo shoot recently. It is embarrassing and I had to refund some money. I was angry at myself for not paying attention to details and for not being keeping my standards at the level I should.

But instead of beating myself up over it I decided I needed to just buckle down and be much more deliberate, much more ‘professional’. What that means for me is I need to leap into my endeavors with more respect for the entire set of skills and knowledge I need to have and work to attain and retain all those things.

I take creative leaps pretty regularly, it isn’t a thing I fear. But now I need to take a leap in another way and I need to realize it is the same leap. I need to commit to the leap, and prepare for the leap as best I can.
Do you know what I mean?

Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily blog.

Quote by Cynthia Heimel, born sometime – not dead yet, American writer


Nov 04 0 comments
attention, Elbert Hubbard, failure, running

>A Failure Is A Man Who Has

>This quote jumped out at me today as being the perfect example of 21st century failure, and I mean that in both a good and a bad way.

In the good way, we are taught that we should learn (cash in on) from our mistakes. That is a universal lesson, easy to grasp, hard to implement.

In the bad way we have the obsession with confessional celebrities from Brittney to Lindsay to Paris to Jon to any number of knuckleheaded politicians who figure out a way to cash in on their stupidity or bad judgment. But it isn’t just the public figures that get sucked into the ‘stumble but make sure you get publicity’ mentality. We do it with our own confessions of failures and shortcomings.

Think about this quote. It is meant to be somewhat facetious, a sarcastic slap in the face to the idea of taking credit for something you probably shouldn’t be too proud of. I don’t mean that we shouldn’t extol the virtue of those who have overcome adversity, but overcoming is defined by the amount of publicity you get, it’s defined by the true redemption you exhibit.

Drawing by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily blog. Pay for a subscription (at the blog) and you will be abundantly famous and rich as a result. Well, ok, you won’t be. But you will feel almost as good as if you were!

Quote by Elbert Hubbard, 1856-1915, American Philosopher – interesting notes: He died on the Lusitania cruise ship when it was torpedoed by the Germans during WWI. L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, was his nephew.


Oct 09 0 comments
failure, William James

>He Who Refuses to Embrace

>What are you letting slip between your fingers today and why? Are you afraid of success or failure? Are you thinking it is absurd to try, no way you can do it? Then you have failed before the attempt was even made. Why not fail attempting it, what difference does it make, right?

Drawing by Marty Coleman,
The Napkin Dad
Napkin Dad Daily blog

Marty’s website

Quote by William James, 1842-1910, American Philosopher.

Just an interesting aside. I always look at the birth/death dates of the quote giver and think of what they saw and what they missed.
James was 19 when the American civil war started and lived to see the Wright Brothers fly. He was lucky to have missed WWI (1914-1918) but missed seeing women get the right to vote in America (1920).


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