The real sting here lies in the asymmetry: shame is manageable, even honorable in its way, but tragedy suggests something irretrievable. Robert Half recognizes that wasted potential creates a peculiar kind of loss—the person with modest gifts who labors honestly will build something, whereas the naturally gifted person who coasts watches their advantage evaporate into regret. Watch it play out in any high school: the B-student who becomes an engineer often surpasses the brilliant classmate who drifted into mediocrity, and that gap only widens with time. The quote's power comes from naming which failure is actually worse—not the struggle itself, but the squandering of what might have been.