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THE A TO Z OF FAILURES
How to Be a Failure (Part S)
Making the mistakes, so you don’t have to
One of the best things about failure is that there is always room for improvement. I don’t know why people crave success — it is so much harder to work out where to go from there.
Society
It was 1990, and I had a wealthy friend, David, who was a member of an exclusive Gentleman’s Club that allowed ladies in one night a year. It was all very grand, and I tried to blend in and not embarrass him. But I couldn’t contain myself when it got to the formal speeches: one man stood up and welcomed the ladies, and another stood up to thank him on behalf of the ladies. “WTF,” I might have voiced a little too loudly, “I am sure the ladies are capable of speaking for themselves.”
Fast forward one year. David, who I knew had spent a month perfecting the speech he was to give to welcome the ladies, invited me again. I was late arriving because I couldn’t find the only suitable pair of shoes I owned.
A digression to explain the shoe failure . . .
Souvenirs, Small print and Shoes
I was in the process of a divorce in 1991, and my husband was claiming his two-week holiday with the children, as laid…
