What Vice President Al Gore and R&B singer Robin Thicke can teach us about success and failure.

How sometimes, not getting what you want can be a blessing, and getting what you want can be a terrible curse.

One of these men is a winner and the other is loser — but who is who?

“If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same.”
‘If’ by Rudyard Kipling

White Men Can’t Jump was a sports-themed, action-comedy released in 1992. It starred Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson in the main roles as two basketball hustlers. The girlfriend of Harrelson’s character was played by Rosie Perez. In one scene she says to him

“Sometimes when you win, you really lose, and sometimes when you lose, you really win.”

Rosie had some sage advice for Woody

To explain what both Rosie Perez and Rudyard Kipling are getting at, let me use the real-life examples of two prominent American men, former Vice-President Al Gore, and R&B singer Robin Thicke.

Let’s start with the loser who actually won.

Al Gore — the loser who really won.