I’m sure you’ve heard the expression before: We love to build people up, place them on a pedestal, and worship their accomplishments…and then we absolutely relish their fall.  Or, to put it more succinctly: Build ’em up and knock ’em down.

So it would appear has happened to MMA fighter Ronda Rousey, who built a reputation as “unbeatable” in the ring but was indeed beaten this past weekend in a bout with Holly Holm.

The below article, written by Matt Scaro for Salon.com, notes how quickly people have turned on Ms. Rousey and how venomous some of the barbs are:

Ronda Rousey’s Fall From Grace: From America’s Brash Sweetheart to Punch Line in Only One Knockout

Without sounding like I”m too high on my horse -hey, I’m guilty of focusing on people’s failures from time to time as well-, I nonetheless don’t understand the need to pile on and become so insulting against people who have achieved success in their respective fields and then experience a personal low/failure.

For example, there’s been considerable venom directed at George Lucas for his Star Wars work post release of Return of the Jedi.  I understand people not liking the prequel films, but really, why such hatred?  It’s a curious phenomena (one which I wrote about here) but at worst he messed up and/or lost his muse and delivered three mediocre or worse films.  It cost audiences a little of their time and not all that much of their money to realize the works weren’t all that good.

If that’s the case, then why not move on?  George Lucas may well have failed in your eyes but in the long run he didn’t damage your life.  He didn’t kidnap your children or swindle you out of all your money.  In fact, I’m reasonably sure George Lucas tried hard to make those three prequels as good as he could but simply failed.  As for Ms. Rousey, audiences cheered her brash talk and were impressed with her quick fights, which were often brutal -and short lived- affairs.

Now that she’s been defeated, many are turning the previously cheered brash talk around and throwing it at her.  Brash talk to them is arrogance, and they want to rub Ms. Rousey’s nose in it.

Reality check: To succeed in just about anything, you have to have a certain level of arrogance regarding your skills.  It’s a big world out there and there are plenty of people competing with you in all manner of jobs/careers.  If you don’t believe in yourself, who will?

Ms. Rousey’s defeat doesn’t change my life.  Neither did seeing those not-very-good Star Wars prequels.  They were failures, sure, but who out there has succeeded in everything they’ve tried every single time?  The only difference between you and them is that their failures were delivered before large audiences while yours weren’t.

Frankly, I wish Ms. Rousey all the luck in the world with her next bout just as I’m always hopeful a writer/artist/director/actor’s next work, even if he is George Lucas, is something I -and other audiences- can love.

And if it doesn’t work out that way, it doesn’t.

I’ve got too many things to spend my time and energy on each day and it feels like a waste to devote that much time and energy into viciously kicking someone when they’re down.