Why do chickens and ostriches have wings?
Because their "ancestors" needed them and they are tasty.
I think people often misconceive the "most successful form of life" with "the top of the food chain."
People think that because they are atop the proverbial ladder, they win.
It's like, a worker in a factory is there for thirty years. Stays on the bottom rung of the work ladder, but he stays. A young up-and-comer works at the factory as a machinist. Moves up to supervisor. Then assistant manager. Manager. CEO. Owner. Then he fucks up and gets fired or has to resign, all in eight years. Who is more successful? The person who maintained a job for thirty years, or the one who got to the top only to ultimately fail miserably?
Or the uni-cell lifeform that stayed in place billions of years or the human lifeform that advanced in thousands?
Or the player who slowly rolled 2, 3, 2, 3, 2, 3, 2, 3 in Monopoly to make it past go, or the one who rolled 12, 12, 12, then went to jail, only to lose all the progress?
It goes back to how you measure success, like Jon said.
Owner fired? Anyway he is more successful than someone who failed to get a promotion for 30 years - it's a pain to do the worst job and get the smallest amount of money. Do you think that he's happy of his career?
That "Owner" already has some experience on a higher position, friends etc. so he'll easily get a better job in the future.
But I agree that the original situation presented by Jokerman really depends on your point of view and I believe that he mentioned it because people rarely see it from that position.