The Sweet Smell of Failure
By Sharla A. Paul, Emory Magazine, Summer 2000

Fast and furious success has become a cultural obsession. Last year saw the launch of Millionaire and Success magazines (the latter of which has since folded), while the retailer Successories sold a whopping $51.7 million in motivational office products in 1999. Says one framed print: "Some people dream of success…while others wake up and work hard at it." Says another: "It's easier to go down the mountain than up, but the view is best from the top."

Jason G. Zasky '91 C (left) begs to differ. He's been hanging around with folks at the foot of the mountain, and their tales of frustrating failure are, he believes, are infinitely more engaging than dime-a-dozen success stories. Founder and editor in chief of the recently launched online magazine Failure, Zasky is banking on an Internet audience weary of pie-in-the-sky prose. Failure chronicles the blundering and blind in arts and entertainment, business, science and technology, history, and sports. In the following piece, excerpted from the inaugural issue of Failure, Zasky profiles one of his favorite could-have-beens.

This article appeared in Emory Magazine, Summer 2000.

[Editor's Note: See the Failure Sports Archive for the article—"Moe Norman: The Greatest Golfer the World Has Never Known"—referenced here].