The ache here isn't really about missed boxing titles—it's about the particular pain of *knowing your own capacity* and watching it curdle into excuses. Schulberg captures something most motivational quotes miss: regret isn't always about failure itself, but about the moment you stopped trying and began performing the role of the defeated person instead. When a middle-aged employee tells you they "could have started that business," what they're often mourning isn't the business at all, but the exact instant they chose comfort over the terrifying work of finding out what they were actually made of. The quote's power lies in its refusal to let us off the hook with grand dreams—it forces us to sit with the difference between potential and the small, daily decisions that either honor it or betray it.