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The question

How has a setback or failure set you up for later success?
Kurt Vonnegut

Novelist and essayist

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here
I would try to write my war story, whether it was interesting or not, and try to make something out of it. I describe that process a little in the beginning of Slaughterhouse Five; I saw it as starring John Wayne and Frank Sinatra. Finally, a girl called Mary O’Hare, the wife of a friend of mine who’d been there with me, said, “You were just children then. It’s not fair to pretend that you were men like Wayne and Sinatra, and it’s not fair to future generations, because you’re going to make war look good.” That was a very important clue to me.

George Plimpton, David Hayman, David Michaelis and Richard Rhodes, The Paris Review, issue 69, Spring 1977, 1 January 1977 source ↗

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Mike Krzyzewski Basketball coach at Duke University, 1980-2022; winner of five NCAA championships
The world would say it was failure. But the difference was so small between us. They played great, but they lost.
Recorded Academy of Achievement interviewer, Academy of Achievement interview, Durham, North Carolina, 1 May 2001 source ↗
Sir Roger Bannister Middle-distance runner and neurologist; first man to run a mile in under four minutes
I had set my mind on winning the 1500-meter gold medal in Helsinki in 1952. ... And, it all came disastrously wrong when I came fourth instead of winning. ... Instead of retiring in order to devote myself to medicine, I decided to go on for another two years while I was still a student, working clinically in London, and I did that.
Recorded Academy of Achievement interview, 7 June 2002 source ↗
Mikhail Gorbachev General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union 1985–1991; President of the Soviet Union 1990–1991
A period of transition to a new quality in all spheres of society's life is accompanied by painful phenomena. When we were initiating perestroika we failed to properly assess and foresee everything. Our society turned out to be hard to move off the ground, not ready for major changes which affect people's vital interests and make them leave behind everything to which they had become accustomed over many years. In the beginning we imprudently generated great expectations, without taking into account the fact that it takes time for people to realize that all have to live and work differently, to stop expecting that new life would be given from above.
Recorded Oslo City Hall, The Nobel Foundation, 5 June 1991 source ↗
Jensen Huang Co-founder, president and chief executive of NVIDIA
One setback after another, we shook it off and skated to the next opportunity. Each time, we gain skills and strengthen our character. No setback that comes our way doesn't look like an opportunity these days.
Recorded n/a, California Institute of Technology 130th Annual Commencement, 14 June 2024, NVIDIA Blog, 15 June 2024 source ↗

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