Success has many fathers, failure is an orphan

When a project is successful, people want to be associated with it and claim credit, even if their contribution was small. But when things go wrong, people tend to point fingers and downplay their involvement.

For example, suppose you take money from investors to start a business. If the business makes a lot of money, your investors might try to claim your success as their own, calling it "our business", and you will find it easy to raise money from many more investors. But if the business is a failure, your investors will probably call it "your business" and ask you to return their money.

You can often tell who is the real leader of a business, organization or group by observing who takes responsibility when things go poorly. A great leader shares the credit with others when the group has success, and takes the blame when the group fails.

This proverb is often incorrectly attributed to John F. Kennedy, who used it at a press conference after the Bay of Pigs. In fact, it seems to originate from the ancient Roman Historian, Tacitus, in his biography of Agricola, explaining the challenges that the Roman army faced in conquering Britain.

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