What is Great Success?

[paul b]

I have been reading through a lot of threads on here and elsewhere and I hear all the time, "I use this or that with great success" or "I fed my moorish Idol bagels and cream cheese with great success". Or
I never show my wife what I spend on my tank and have great success.

What exactly is great success?

Is great success when you buy a clownfish on Friday and it lives long enough to get it out of the bag without  jumping on the floor and it is now next Tuesday but it ate a flake on Monday  Is that great
Success"?  Or did you buy a Moorish Idol because you saw it eating Hamburger Helper in the store and the store owner assured you the fish has been eating this for 6 months so you got it home and although it is covered in spots and is nauseous so you put Prizapro on it and it is still alive after 3 days.

I don't know but "Success and Great Success" should mean different things.  To me, "success" is if you buy a fish and a year or two later it is alive and healthy.  That means the fish is eating and thriving, disease free and seems healthy.  But "Great Success" is only when you buy a fish, it eats right away and eventually, if it is a pair, it spawns and keeps spawning for it's entire presumed lifespan which in fish can be anywhere from 4 years to 40 years.  If you have a clownfish and it is 10 years old, you are successful at keeping that fish.  But is that same fish lives
30 or 40 years, that is great success because clownfish live into their 40s. 

If a person lives 30 or 40 or even 50 years was he successful?  I don't think so because a humans presumed lifespan is somewhere around 80 so anything else is a failure.
If we say we have great success at something, some people may get the wrong impression.  As fa as I know, no one with a home tank has ever kept a moorish Idol for it's presumed lifespan which is "probably" 15 or so years.  I kept one for five years which is a dismal failure.
I think we really need to pick our words more carefully. 

Like if I say I am a real hunk of a Man and a great catch.  I may be lying.

[Origami]

Great success is when you live to see your kids become a success. It's like planting a seed and waiting for it to grow to bear fruit.

 

Everything else is small stuff. 

 

(LOL. That's just the first thing I thought of when I read the title of your thread. A friend and I were just having a chat about our adult children, and the trials and joy of watching them grow up, and our own struggles with learning how to let go. I'm sure that you'll understand.)

 

We hear so much hyperbole today, we probably reflexively dial-down claims. I know that I do.

[paul b]

It's also Great Success when your Kids grow up and give you some of these. 

 

[Origami]

It's also Great Success when your Kids grow up and give you some of these. 

 

Yep. Have two now. 

[paul b]

When I was stationed in Colorado I thought I was the hottest thing around.  (I even had hair) I had this motorcycle and I was cruising out someplace on a deserted stretch of road in the plains and I spot these two beautiful girls in a convertible.  (you didn't need helmets in those days)

The girls stopped and I pulled up next to them to put my moves on them.  I stopped and put my foot down.   My bellbottom pants leg got stuck in the pedal and I fell over in the street looking very stupid.  I stayed there until the girls were very far away and I couldn't hear them laughing any more.

That was not an example of a Great Success.    

[Origami]

When I was stationed in Colorado I thought I was the hottest thing around.  (I even had hair) I had this motorcycle and I was cruising out someplace on a deserted stretch of road in the plains and I spot these two beautiful girls in a convertible.  (you didn't need helmets in those days)

The girls stopped and I pulled up next to them to put my moves on them.  I stopped and put my foot down.   My bellbottom pants leg got stuck in the pedal and I fell over in the street looking very stupid.  I stayed there until the girls were very far away and I couldn't hear them laughing any more.

That was not an example of a Great Success.  

Great story! I can just see it.

 

Bell bottoms. All the rage back in the day. Remember them getting bigger and bigger? They were so big that pretty soon you looked like a Saturn V rocket on the launch pad. You half expected to see LOX (liquid oxygen) vapors coming flowing out down near your sneakers. 

[paul b]

Yes, but no good on a motorcycle. 

[Origami]

Yes, but no good on a motorcycle. 

 

Clearly!

[FirstContact]

Great success is participating in the hobby for a lifetime!

[Matt LeBaron]

For me great success in the hobby is surpassing an acknowledged "norm". My one achievement in the hobby that I would term a "Great Success" was with my first saltwater fish, a Firefish named Vince. That little guy lived over 7 years, everything I read online and in print says they like 3-4 at the high end. So Vince is for me a great success, whether I can repeat that, well I'll let you know, his successor, Star Moon (my at the time 2 year old named it) is coming up to the completion of its 3rd year this summer in July, so hopefully little Star Moon still has several years left in them.

 

Honestly though I couldn't really tell you how I did it beyond the fact that my Firefish have always eaten the same diet as my seahorses, PE Mysis with the occasional addition if Selcon, so maybe that's it but while most of my vertebrate live stock generally live good long lives nothing else has gone and lived double their expected live span like Vince did yet. Although my one remaining Pajama Cardinal fish is going on 7 years now I think, his two other buddies passed away last year at around 6, which good but not great.