I'd rather have huge success and huge failures than travel in

Kevyn Aucoin, the master of beauty and vision, once declared: “I’d rather have huge success and huge failures than travel in the middle of the road.” These words blaze with the fire of boldness, the refusal to settle for mediocrity, the cry of one who would rather live in extremes than fade into the grayness of safety. It is the anthem of the daring, the creed of the artist, and the timeless wisdom of those who know that greatness is never found in half-measures.

The meaning is fierce. To walk the middle of the road is to walk where it is safe, where there are no cliffs to tumble from, but also no heights to scale. It is the path of moderation, but also of forgetfulness, where the footsteps of a thousand others erase your own. Aucoin rejects this. He chooses instead the road of risk, where huge success may crown him or huge failure may humble him. For in both glory and defeat, the soul is alive, tested, and remembered. It is only in mediocrity that the spirit withers unnoticed.

This wisdom is written across history. Consider Christopher Columbus, who dared to sail west when the world clung to eastward maps. He risked ridicule, ruin, and death. And yet, though he stumbled, though his voyages brought both discovery and controversy, he is remembered as one who changed the shape of the world. Had he chosen the middle road, had he stayed at port, his name would be dust. But because he embraced both the possibility of greatness and the shadow of failure, his life resounds across centuries.

The artist’s heart especially knows this truth. To create is to risk ridicule, for beauty is not born in safety. Leonardo da Vinci’s experiments often failed, his machines collapsed, his projects unfinished. Yet in the midst of these failures arose the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper, and the sketches that foresaw the future. His successes were towering because he dared to risk failure. In this, he lived as Aucoin teaches: better to stumble in brilliance than stand unshaken in mediocrity.

There is also deep humanity in this saying. For to embrace both huge success and huge failure is to embrace life itself. No soul is born to walk evenly through all days. Storms will come, and so will moments of triumph. To accept both with courage is to live fully, to taste the sweetness of victory and the bitter strength of defeat. The coward avoids both, but the brave drink deeply of each, knowing that even failure is a teacher greater than safety.

Thus, the teaching is clear: do not fear failure. Fear instead the lukewarm life, the unnoticed road, the safe choices that leave no mark. The middle of the road is crowded, dull, and silent. The path of greatness is narrow, treacherous, and glorious. Choose the path where you may fall, but also where you may rise higher than you ever dreamed. For in that rising and falling, you will know the fullness of existence.

Practical counsel follows: seek challenges that frighten you. Dare projects that may collapse, for they may also become your greatest victories. Accept rejection as proof that you reached beyond comfort. And above all, refuse to settle for the ordinary when the extraordinary is within reach. Let Aucoin’s words be your guide: better to burn bright and risk ashes than to dim your light in the fog of mediocrity.

So let the generations remember: huge success and huge failures are the signs of those who dared. The middle of the road belongs to those who chose safety over greatness. Choose instead to live boldly, to risk, to fall, to rise—and in that daring, to become unforgettable.