Failure and Response
I've had a lot of failures in my life. My initial, natural inclination is to analyze and explain to myself somehow how the situation wasn't entirely my fault, and to somehow justify it. I recognize this inclination and then try to take a step back, review the situation, and analyze why I made the decisions that I made, what I could have done better in hindsight, and what to take away from it and learn.
But, it's difficult. I want to justify my reasoning. But the truth of the matter is that in a lot of situations, there are many reasons to justify, or not justify a decision. There are also outcomes that can make a decision look smart, or vice versa, make it look dumb. However, sometimes, you're not really sure what's going to happen. Most people, I believe, don't ever go for it, they don't make the investment. They play it safe, sit on their hands, and don't go for it.