Failure is the only route to winning in the long term. There have been a lot of people that were winning in the beginning only to fail later on in life.
People only learn when they have the crap beat out of them, metaphorically speaking.
Failure can be a great motivator for some folks, and it can be the "Coup de grâce" for others. It's best to be in the first camp.
I don't think people are "failures" so to say, they just didn't pick themselves back up and keep going. Life marches forward and those that quit, are usually swallowed whole in this game of life.
That's my philosophy for what it's worth. Probably not much. LOL!