I don’t measure a man’s success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom.

The saying defines success not as uninterrupted ascent but as resilience after failure. Its image of “hitting bottom” frames adversity as inevitable, while “how high he bounces” shifts attention to recovery—courage, adaptability, and persistence under pressure. Read this way, the quote aligns with a martial ethos that prizes endurance and renewed initiative after setbacks, suggesting that character is revealed most clearly in crisis. It also functions as a corrective to status-based measures of achievement: rank, wealth, or acclaim matter less than the capacity to regain footing and continue forward after defeat.