Part and Parcel. Going Forward. Yes, We Did All That. Underground Transport Tunnels. There Was Only One Rodney.
- Quote of the Week: “Failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success.” – Arianna Huffington
Some might disagree, but life experiences have shown me that Arianna Huffington’s quote is accurate. Huffington co-founded The Huffington Post, then started Thrive Global, a corporate and consumer platform focused on ending workplace burnout. Huffington is a pure definition of her quote, pivoting away from The Huffington Post due to burnout, then launching a platform for technology and AI-driven wellness initiatives.
Here is my take on why failure is part of success:
- Failing, making a mistake, or a wrong assessment quickly shows you what did not work and what adjustments to make going forward.
- When you fail, you can crawl up in a hole and disappear, or you can ‘man-up’, get strong, and find a better path to success.
- Failing can help push you to step outside your comfort zone and look for other solutions.
- Failing teaches you what does not work and pushes you to adapt, refine, and innovate.
Steve Jobs: “…if you are afraid of failing you will not get very far….”
- Question of the Week: “Ask and you shall receive” is an understatement based on the dozens of replies I received to the last Question of the Week regarding the go-forward with JustMyTake. I very much appreciate all of you who answered – your responses have inspired me to continue to post, for now, on a weekly basis. That frequency may change as well as moving to the Substack platform, but for now, I will keep good, good...a phrase that I try to remember when making a decision. Again, thanks to everyone for your opinions, thoughts, and directives.
This week’s Question of the Week: What is a simple thing that always makes your day better?
- The “yes, we drank out of a hose” video I posted in the last JustMyTake generated a big response from readers. I often compare the past to the present, mostly using music of yesteryear as a comparison, but this video provides us with a good dose of reality. 🙂
Things I Think for September 13, 2026
- Two days and twenty-five years ago. I know exactly where I was, what I was doing, and who told me that I needed to watch the television in the office’s break room. Over 80% of Americans born before 2001 say they remember exactly where they were or what they were doing when they learned of the attacks. But over a quarter of the U.S. population was born after 9/11. Three words: devastating, disheartening, and astonishing.
- The first weekend of NFL football. That means we are already in the ninth month of the year. How is it already the middle of September?
- From 2008 to 2014, Sons of Anarchy was a weekly much-watch television series for me. The writing, cast, and production was excellent, especially considering the subject matter of the show. Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original (a.k.a. SAMCRO) had the motorcycle club operating a legal auto repair shop as a front for an illegal arms-trafficking enterprise. Charlie Hunnam, who played the character ‘Jax’ in the original series, has announced a spinoff with many of the original cast returning to the series called Legends. Let us hope Hunnam can make this spinoff half as good as Sons of Anarchy.
- Should your interest wane away from an NFL game this afternoon, and you want to watch two amazing athletes, tune into this afternoon’s U.S. Open men’s final. Ben Shelton and Alexander Zverev will slug it out at 2pm EDT. If Shelton wins, he will be the first American man to win a major tournament since Andy Roddick at the 2003 U.S. Open.
- I totally understand “wearing your emotions on your sleeve,” but yesterday’s on-court behavior by Aryna Sabalenka was a bit shocking. During the match and after shaking hands with U.S. Open winner Elena Rybakina, Sabalenka let her emotions get the best of her, repeatedly yelling at her coaches and slamming her racket…very unfortunate considering the number of young tennis players who were taking in the final women’s match.
Do not feel sorry for Sabalenka. Her career prize money stands at $50 million with her income from endorsements, lifestyle brands, and equity stakes raking in $23 million annually. It might be time for Sabalenka to take a long break from the tennis circuit.
- Have you experienced the tunnel connecting the UK and France? Known as the Chunnel, this engineering marvel connects England’s Folkestone with Coquellas in northern France. This thirty-one-mile railway tunnel opened in 1994, and it remains the only fixed link between Great Britain and the European mainland.
In the United States, the SpaceX subsidiary, The Boring Company, has created tunnels connecting hotels, the convention center, and the airport in Las Vegas, Nevada. I have used the Vegas Loop often, especially if I am staying at the Encore, Fontainebleau, or Resorts World hotels, which provides a ten-minute underground ride to Las Vegas Convention Center using a Tesla automobile. Projects underway for additional transportation tunnels planned for Nashville, Orlando, and Dubai.
How do you build an underwater tunnel?
- Pure Talent. The comedians of the past had a longer and easier runway to deliver material. The ‘sensitivity’ of today’s society has muffled the content and delivery of most comedians, though there are talented ones out there. Yesteryear’s comedic landscape gave us brash, insulting, and sometimes perverse talent including Buddy Hackett, Don Rickles, Richard Pryor, Sam Kinison, Eddie Murphy, Katt Williams, and many others. Rodney Dangerfield’s content, delivery, and facial expressions were impressive, with an uncanny way of providing us with gut-busting levels of self-deprecating humor. Rodney discussing this one-liner about drinking: ““I drink way too much. The last time I gave a urine sample, it had an olive in it.” Rodney Dangerfield was Pure Talent.
Rodney on the Johnny Carson Show in 1983: