Why Good People Fail

Have you ever met a good person—kind, humble, lovely, loving, generous, sweet, caring, hardworking, thoughtful, patient, open-minded, dependable, reasonable, haven’t committed any crime, haven’t stolen anything, haven’t cheated anyone—but either financially, spiritually, socially, physically, or psychologically broke and exhausted?

Sure, you have. It’s because in this world, there are just too many of them. You see them often while you’re at home, in the office, in coffee shops, in school, in the church.

They are everywhere, too. Chances are you work with them as well. Some of them are your friends, your classmates, your associates, your seat mate, or your golf buddy.

The truth is we see these people everyday. And in several occasions, they have approached us for some advice. Whether we are the best person to counsel or not, we try to appease them and share some words with them. That’s why you are friends. Where those words are coming from doesn’t matter. We are there to comfort them.

However, we also know that in some cases, we are on the same place as they are thus facing the same set of problems, sometimes even harder.

Whoever is asking for an advice from whom isn’t as important getting an advice itself. Most of the time, we get them for free over lunch or coffee.

Despite those wisdom you get from people you talk with, the goodness that you have in your heart, and the countless opportunities out there, something seems to always go wrong.

Why is that?

Is it because one is just luckier than the other? Is it because one was born with riches while the other with ditches? Is it because one has a complete education and the other is a high school dropout?

Why is it that regardless of our status in life, we sometimes find ourselves hopeless and helpless? While money can solve many problems, it can create problems which it can’t solve. While popularity matters to most people, it can’t guarantee anything. There were celebrities who opened up a business only to get bankrupt after a while. There were politicians who also put up their own but failed. We know of people with PhDs and masters degree who ventured into something and suffered the same fate.

How can you connect the idea that many people fail despite their goodness?

So the question now becomes, “Do we even have to be bad to succeed?” Unfortunately, bad people, like the good ones, fail, too.

So what’s the deal here? What do you need to be to succeed? Do you need to be good or bad?

While the answer to the question, “Why good people fail?” seems to be complicated, I found a simple yet profound answer. Surprisingly, the answer doesn’t suggest that you need to be bad to succeed because they are many bad people who fail, too.

Good people fail because they are careless.

I’ll tell you a story in my next blog.