Success Quote by David Viscott

Viscott’s line flatters and scolds in the same breath: it turns “failure” from an outcome into a decision. For a psychologist who built a public career translating therapy-speak into actionable self-help, that reframing is the point. If failure isn’t the botched attempt, the rejection letter, the relapse, or the awkward first date, then the word loses its sting. What remains is a cleaner moral category: passivity.

The intent is behavioral, not philosophical. Viscott is trying to remove the emotional tax that keeps people stuck - shame, perfectionism, dread of judgment - by redefining the only unforgivable misstep as nonparticipation. It’s classic motivational cognition: shrink the threat, widen the pathway. “Try” becomes a minimal, attainable unit of courage, something you can do today without guaranteeing a win tomorrow.

The subtext is also a quiet rebuke to the audience most likely to buy the message: capable people who narrate their avoidance as prudence. If you don’t submit the work, you can’t be rejected; if you don’t start, you can’t discover you’re average. Viscott punctures that protective logic by calling it failure outright, yanking the label off the visible strivers and pinning it to the invisible quitters.

Context matters: late-20th-century American psychology was increasingly public-facing, braided with entrepreneurial optimism and a growing belief in personal agency. The quote fits that era’s therapeutic pragmatism: you can’t control outcomes, but you can control engagement. It’s less a comforting mantra than a strategic insult, designed to get you moving.