Definition of a failure

Someone who doesn't think long-term about their future and only lives for instant gratification. Think of the average NEET who is more than capable of getting a job and sustaining themselves, but is still 30+ years old living with and sponging off their parents rent free because it's easier than actually working. Or they have some part time beginner job meant for kids like fast food or retail that they put the bare minimum of effort required into to not be fired, don't save their money and blow their entire paycheck on autistic shit. Have fun being homeless in your 50s when your parents kick the bucket and you've done nothing to prepare for that inevitably.

Someone who is stuck in a rut and refuses to take advice on how to improve their lot in life. They're happier wallowing in self pity and handouts. This can be anything from improving in a hobby to a better job to mental or physical health. If you suck at something, whine about wanting to do better, someone gives you advice on how to do better and you don't consider or act on what they said, preferring to just bitch about your situation and keep on with a "woe is me!" mentally, you're a failure.
 
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Depends on the Social Circle you run in. It's a fairly subjective topic. For example, if you don't have a Bachelor's Degree, live independently, and have a $40k salary by the time you're 22, you're a failure in the upper-middle class.

I think baseline, the real cut-off is 30. If you're not financially independent by the time you're 30, you're a failure by most every social circle.

EDIT: There are exceptions to the baseline, like if you had your shit squared by 24 but by 28 or 29 you suffered a terrible divorce or got laid off and are now forced to live with your parents, that's not so much a failure as a set-back. I think the main point is, if you've never been financially independent by the time you're 30 or if you can't get yourself out of a hole within 2-4 years, you're a failure.
 
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Billy "the Bot" Bobson said:
I think baseline, the real cut-off is 30. If you're not financially independent by the time you're 30, you're a failure by most every social circle.
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So was Terry Davis a failure?

Also financially independent by 30? Like that leaves a ton of variables. People who attend Medical School are still under heavy financial burdens while they're in their 30's.

Also if you're renting, if you don't own a home you're still dependent on a landlord. Like Pre-boomer america you had most people living in multi-generational households, post boomer america you have the same thing.

Also you can deal drugs and be financially independent, if we're just using money as the only method. But drug dealing isn't really a sign of success.
 
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To define failure, there must be a goal. What that goal is, exactly, is debatable. A D or a C on a report card is a passing grade but there are still adults that would disown their children for anything less than an A. The child met the school's goal, but not their parents, so they're both a failure and a success. Its all subjective.
 
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Dr. Ricearoni said:
To define failure, there must be a goal. What that goal is, exactly, is debatable. A D or a C on a report card is a passing grade but there are still adults that would disown their children for anything less than an A. The child met the school's goal, but not their parents, so they're both a failure and a success. Its all subjective.
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Yeah I think this pretty much sums it up.

That and you're only a failure if you give up.
 
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We've all heard it, no one is a failure, blah blah blah, but as Kiwis we know that's a line of shit. So what is the best definition of failing at life? Is it the lolcows? Is there ever a point where a defined failure in life should neck himself? What is it? When is it?
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I did a google search and my first hit was OP's face.
 
It depends on how you define success. In Henrick Ibsen's play "Peer Gynt" Gynt goes through life with several bouts of fortune that comes and goes (mostly due to his decisions and frankly shit personality) and experiences so much. I believe Ibsen said he did not consider Gynt a failure, but considered him to just be a product of what happens in life. At the end of the roller coaster that is life as long as you have some good stories and memories, I think your life can be considered a personal success. Still doesn't mean we can't laugh at exceptional individuals.

Peer Gynt is written by a likely depressed Norwegian poet so take it with a grain of salt.
 
I’d define “failing at life” as not taking responsibility for your own existence and well-being.

I think we all have some areas in life where we let other people pick up the slack a bit, especially if you live with others. But if you were all alone in the world, could you do the basic things you needed to in order to get by? Could you actually sustain yourself through your own choices and actions? If you could, then you haven't failed at life.

However, if you're not legitimately mentally retarded or physically disabled, and your life would still spiral into chaos if a caretaker/rescuer/enabler wasn’t around, I think you've failed.
 
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I would like to say that clearly, anyone that resembles me is truly a failure.

On a more serious note lol.
I think you are a failure once you lose the desire/drive to become something more then what you already are.

I think men, with more money then I'll ever have, are failures; when all they do is sit on there laurels waiting for the cold embrace of death.
What is life without experience and trial? They know not how fulfilling life can be as they drink, fuck and all around just waste what little time they have left on purely selfish and meaningless pursuits. What is money if you are afraid to spend it? What does your third trophy wife mean to you that the other two before he didn't?

This of course is based in part by my own beliefs, and one of the things I believe is that we are here in part to help and bless other people. My life is objectively pretty good and most every good thing I have has been from reaching out and touching (not like that) other people around me.
 
I think there are 3 kinds of failure in life: Intrapersonal, Extrapersonal, and physical.

Intrapersonal failure is the most vague and depends on your personal belief system and goals. In order to fail this, I feel like you need to fail in achieving personal goals.
Extrapersonal failure is the one based on society's views on success. This one is determined on the comparison of others to yourself.
Physical is the easiest to tell as it is literally the lack of ablity to do an action.

Ranking them I feel it would be like this:
Intra>Extra>Physical.
 
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It's a tricky one, when discussing failure what we're talking about is a collapse of social prestige which can be very fluid. For example my cousin is a nice guy but is probably a failure because he lives with his parents at 45 and never had a real job by contrast my dipshit neighbor is descended from junkie trash but holds down a shit job, has a fuck ugly wife and has managed to carve out a life for himself where he's living with a certain degree of achievement.
 
Per my own definition, being a failure at life is when you have failed at everything that you set out to do.

Personally it is not about the guy in a homeless camp wearing a trash bag.... maybe he accomplished things that he wanted to accomplish, and doesn't care about the fact that he wears a trash bag.

Top. CEOs and sought after doctors and lawyers can also be failures at life if they are not living according to their values. If their family lives are in ruins, for example, and they aimed to produce loving families, that is failure.
 
Who or what is a failure is really hard to define, but I agree with posters it's more a mind set than a set rule.

I have a good friend of mine whom is a care taker for his parents, dudes in his 30s g/f cars, career, vet who served the nation. Is he a failure because he lives with the folks vs dropping them in a home? Life can throw shit at you, so I don't like saying any set piece/goal by a date. Know lady that's house burnt down (literally a few days ago), she's technically homeless, by no fault of hers or her family. Is she a failure? Far from because the amount of help she's getting because who they are as a person.

Think all the little things we slid at in life, things that aren't super important, to some that might make us a failure in others eyes, I really enjoyed playing sports in high school and after. I didn't make it to the NBA am I a failure? I made friends had tons of fun, exercise etc. Someone will say yes and mean it. But reality is NBA wasn't my life goal but I did give my all any game. Again someone will still say yes that the best of the best could be a great player, and focus on studies etc.

I think we all worry about being one, if you worry about it you aren't as it's more a mind set. Because when that fear hits you want to fix/improve/change.

I look at my own hopes goals and dreams like all of us they change and if you can transition those with out nuking your life that's pretty good.

I'll spare the side bar and mentioning a cow. But I remember listening to a peterson interview and he in his kermit sounding voice had the nerve to state what a successful man is. A real man or woman, like failure values success in their own terms.

Diogenes, started a school of thought and lived in a bucket stealing food. How is he not as good a man as what some Canuck pill head has to say? It's been almost 2000 years since Diogenes passed and he's still a school subject in the western world. He probably wouldn't give a shit making it all the more comical.
 
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Someone who doesn't believe in themselves (excluding mental disorders).
 
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