I’m not a big believer in failure. Well, that’s not fair. I believe in it. I just believe that people may be using the wrong metric too often. The progress of humanity is marked with failures, way more failures than successes. But it’s often what we learn from the failures that pushes us forward. This part is my more pessimistic side talking, obviously. Either I think failure is overused, or that failure is an acceptable thing.
Ted is an interesting character to me. As I was coloring this, I realized there’s many ways the last panel could be taken. I see him as saying that he failed to live up to his dream, that as his company grew it became unmanageable. When he let the main character get hired, he knew he was smart. But smart does not equal motivated. Maybe that’s part of his failure, too. He wanted the MC to succeed. I think he’s more disappointed than anyone about the situation.
In a way, I understand. I have seen people locked into positions that they were too important to promote, even though they had a wealth of skills going to waste. Usually the same thing happens in the end, they realize they have to leave and go on to do great things for another organization. It’s kind of sad, but that’s the world we live in.
