At the Finish Line of Life, Sometimes Second Is Best

Which is why the key to being a successful No. 2 is accepting it, as the car rental agency Avis did in 1963 when it introduced that "We Try Harder" slogan, conjuring images of your ex-boyfriend's younger brother -- the one who had a crush on you. No. 2 is endearing. (And besides, No. 1 is The Man, and everyone wants to stick it to The Man.)

Avis's campaign worked.

"Not only did the original campaign openly admit that Avis was losing money and short on customers, it also heralded the fact that Avis ranked 'No. 2' in the rental car marketplace," an Avis muckety-muck named Robert Salerno wrote a few years ago.

Avis "embraced their inner second place," says Ann Fabian, the dean of humanities at Rutgers University. "Most of us deeply, deeply identify with the people who come in second or third, 'cause that's where most of us are."

All those '80s movies, like "Pretty in Pink," with all those Duckies chasing after all those Andies in pink prom dresses? We're all Duckie, a little needy and nerdy. Which brings us to Clay Aiken, as most good conversations should. He came in second to Ruben Studdard on "American Idol," but he became more popular and successful in the long run. He loved his seconddom, and his seconddom loved him back.

"I think people like an underdog sometimes," Aiken once told Larry King.

Al Gore, same thing. A No. 2 who tried to become a No. 1 and failed, poor thing. He grew a beard and America felt sorry for him, and then decided he was right all along. Triumph of the No. 2! And then he cashed in his disappointment for a Nobel Peace Prize.

The Iowa caucuses can teach us a lot about life, and about expectations. Success is relative. A second-place showing for a second-tier candidate like Dodd in Iowa would mean something different than it would for front-runner Hillary Clinton.

Once upon a time, a guy named Jimmy Carter showed up in Iowa, and nobody knew who he was. He came in second, behind "uncommitted." And because he was nobody, that ignominious second place showing read like a first-place prize.

And he rode second place all the way to the presidency.