Success and failure. We think of them as opposites, but they're really not. They're companions — the hero and the sidekick.

Shames reframes “success” and “failure” as interdependent rather than mutually exclusive. The metaphor of “hero and sidekick” suggests that failure is not merely the antagonist to be defeated but an ever-present companion that enables, instructs, and even legitimizes success. In this view, achievement is rarely a straight ascent; it is shaped by missteps, reversals, and learning. The line also critiques a cultural tendency to treat outcomes as binary and moralized—success as virtue, failure as shame—arguing instead for a more realistic narrative in which both travel together through any ambitious life or project.