The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England

by Brandon Sanderson

“A little pebble starts an avalanche,” I said. “Life isn’t like the craps table, where the next roll has the same chance of winning as the last one. In real life, you lose a little—and that makes you wonder if you deserve to lose. You get nervous, make mistakes, overcompensate. That makes you lose more, then it compounds. Eventually, you’re so far gone…”

What was I doing? Trying to justify it all? Heap my bad decisions upon other sources? No, I thought. You’ve never had a problem taking responsibility. You’ve always thought you were worthless. No one thing had ruined me. It had just…piled on.