Jay Marcyes

The best quotes comes from part 1, about 8:30 in, on failure:

So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena where I believed I truly belonged, I was set free. I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life. [...] Some failure in life is inevitable, It is impossible to live without failing at something unless you lived so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all. In which case, you fail by default.