The point is not about money or status, or pain and joy, but about the willingness to confidently <i>feel into</i>[1] these things. Mediocrity robs you of your passion. The point is not that failure teaches, or that children should not be built up by an overbearing, over-parental, society, but that all beings should seek to FEEL. It's a curious state that foreshadows knowing, and to be content with mediocrity would greatly reduce the variety of sensations that a moral, considered life can <i>hope</i> to expect in this world. It's existential suicide. And it grieves me dearly, so I get all righteous and pontificate.<p>[1:Einfuhlung, Johann Gottfried Herder, Isaiah Berlin]