Character is not built in good times, but in bad times

I mostly agree with this, but not with the absolute version of it. Saying there's no growth in good times is wrong; you can learn plenty when things are going well. What this perspective is really pointing at, I think, is that you learn much more in bad times than in good ones. It's the same idea as the old saying that failure teaches more than success.

But I'd add a warning that people usually skip: too much bad time is risky. If hardship pushes you into survival mode, you stop living and creating and start just getting through the day. Your choices shrink. Your worldview shrinks with them. Character built entirely under pressure can end up narrow, not strong.

So I don't believe in one correct path. Sometimes you need the good times to recover and widen your view. Sometimes you need to take a big risk to grow. Neither is the right way or the wrong way; it depends on where you are.

What makes risk worth taking, for me, is this: if you honestly weigh the upside and the downside before you act, even the downside isn't really a loss. It becomes experience, and that experience pays back ten times over once you find the right path.

That's also why I don't think anyone needs to be right all the time. You only need to be right on a few exceptional decisions. All the failures before that aren't wasted; they're the foundation those decisions stand on. Look at successful people and you'll see the same pattern: a pile of failures underneath one or two calls that put them far ahead of everyone else.