The truth about failure is a simple one, yet it is one that is almost universally forgotten about or unappreciated. Here is the truth. You have not failed until you decide to fail. You cannot fail if you do not give up. Giving up is failing.
In the adventure that is your life, there will be some things from time to time that you want to have, be and do. You can have be and do anything you set your mind to. In your quest to succeed at achieving the things that you want to achieve, there is always the real possibility that you will face some challenges that knock the wind out of your sails.
If you combine all of the knowledge the entire human race has acquired through out all of human history, it is small when compared to what we do not know. Most of what we do not know is made up of thing we do not know that we do not know, things that exist outside of our awareness. To give you an example, if I were to tell you that I am thinking of a word, you know I am thinking of a word, but you cannot know what that word is. Before I told you that I was thinking of a word, you were not aware that I was thinking of a word. Either way you do not know the word I am thinking of. Before I told you that I was thinking of a word, you did not know that you did not know, and when I made you aware of the fact that I was thinking of a word, you knew what you did not know.
Most of what we do not know, both as individuals and as a collective is made up of things we do not know that we do not know, and because we do not know these things, we cannot plan for them. When you fail at anything, you have just realized an opportunity for you to learn what it is that was outside of your awareness, what you failed to account for. Failing is an opportunity for you to succeed, because hidden within each failure are some to what you need to do for you to succeed. Failing is nothing more than feedback, and you can use that feedback to make you better, stronger and faster. You can use that feedback to increase your odds of success. Feedback lets you know what works and what doesn't, and when you know what works, you can do more of it, and when you know what doesn't, you can do less of it.
The sad thing about failure is that we are thought that it is a bad thing, something to be punished. I blame the education system for the role that it plays in that. If you are reading this right now, it is because of failure. If you can speak or walk, it is because of failure. It is because you made mistakes and they were corrected. It is because you fell, got back up, fell again, got back up, and on and on, until eventually you found the solution, and voila, you could walk, speak, read and write.
Your last failure is your greatest teacher.