The Zen of Y Combinator

Actually, it isn't missing that. That is simply not important. Those who think it is are making excuses for themselves.

Many YC startups have failed, many non-YC startups are successful.

Take responsibility for your own success and failures. If you want to go to YC, great, go for it, but don't expect that getting in is the silver bullet to success.

I'm not sure what you mean by "the wing part of the country". I haven't heard that colloquialism before.

I did mean "You make what you measure" as is in the reference: http://paulgraham.com/13sentences.html