Biography Is Not Formulaic and Successful Life

I think we have too many biographies of very successful people, and not enough biographies of failures. So it's quite a skill to pick the right subject. I wrote a biography myself of three brothers, three Mexican brothers who were painters, and essentially were failures in the art world. And I looked at why they didn't succeed, even though they were all quite talented. In one case, the problem was alcohol. In two other cases,. the problem was an unwillingness to leave one's native village and take more chances  and put oneself out there.