Success and failure

"I got it!", shouts the lad aloud;
For his family to hear aloud!

He has won, he's a master of his life;
And now ready for a future of strife!???

And in a corner lies his friend;
No one to help him in this time of need...

For he has failed, failed in a test;
A test he wonders, the test of his life?

He resolves to be the best,
Beat fate at a game it knows best...

It's but fourscore years hence,
And our friend who failed is a winner now;

And chances upon, he, on his long lost friend;
Who is now but his former self!

Hollow success has taken its toll;
And made, a winner, look a fool!

Our friend now can't but laugh;
At a life he had cursed back then!

He now thanks for that moment;
When he was down, yet, not out...

He is now a master of his life;
Thankful for little strife...

This is the cycle of success and failure, he knows;
For he has been through it!; he knows... very well he knows...