Phelps

You know you're a success when your failure is more interesting than another's success.

It’s very much a tribute if a fall
From teetering perfection is a gauge
To measure other failures, and assuage
The second, third, and fourth that any wall
They’ve broken through was whole ere they arrived,
And not yet smashed to pieces.  What a shame,
We measure failure with a fallen name
And never recognize if we derived
The fall from such a grace from such a height.
I’m thinking even Michael didn’t know
The striding he was hitting, ere the low,
And pipe that he was hitting, and the sight
That traveled round the world had brought him down –
The gauge we use to see another drown.