Alain de Botton: A kinder, gentler philosophy of success

I like what this guy talked about here. Something which I have always believe in is how the people have been influence (by movies, advertisement, news) to believe in what they want. The TED talk by Dan Ariely has shown how our decisions are easily influenced by our options. There are people who want to do well in every single thing in order to be happy. These people often end up to be really miserable.

However I know there's a paradox in this belief as well because the whole human race may stop progressing if this level of competition is gone. If everyone just accept failure as something not due to himself/herself then we may find ourselves living in a totally different (maybe worst?) world. The key i think is to be able to make a mark and say yes this is enough, not in the barely enough sense but to be comfortable enough.