@Glennn,
And then there's my family:
Take my dear old grandfather for example. He lived to the not so ripe old age of fifty-eight. Having been cursed with an overpowering desire for alcohol and tobacco, he had long since lost his swaggering gate and zest for life, if he ever had it. And after winning a case of Southern Comfort at the local Christmas raffle, he was always up at the crack of 3:00 P.M. every day and would go about his daily routine of cursing God, followed by a not so brisk crawl to the bathroom which continued 'til the day he choked and suffocated on his own bloody vomit.
If we possess a deep desire to succeed, sometimes that's just not enough to get us over even the first hurdle.