So this is it. You have worked your tail off to ace the test. To score most. To get into the program you’ve dreamed about. To make the project incredible. To impress the girl you have been swooning over.

And then…You bombed it. You missed everything. You didn’t get selected. Your project is junk. She shut you down before you could ask her what her name was. You worked so hard and have nothing to show for it. You made it your life’s mission to give this 100 percent but nothing worked out the way it was supposed to. What are you supposed to do now?

Should you quit? Should you abandon your dreams? Should you just write this one up as a loss?

Let me make it really simple: NO!

Many times in life, our "best" just won’t be good enough. There is nothing we can do to change that. We will work our hardest and dedicate more time to it than anything, and yet, we will fail. It is inevitable. The thing to keep in mind is that we cannot let a failure define our lives. You have the ability to do things that no one else on this planet can do. You are an individual, different from anyone who has ever lived. If you let failure define what you do with your life, then you are letting yourself down.

In order to be successful in life, we need to keep a few things in perspective. First, don’t let the successes of other people define who you are. There will always be those people in our lives who seem to succeed without effort. One of my best friends growing up was like this. I would always try to compete with him on everything. I would study and do tons of problems, and he would read the book and get it completely. I would spend hours in the gym, and he was always stronger and more skilled than me. In college, I get a B, and he gets an A.

He is someone who always seems to succeed. The thing is, I am not him. He is brilliant and will do great things, but so will I. I will always have to work harder than most people in life, but with that dedication, I will do anything I want in life, and so can you. It might take a few failures to get there, but know that success is just around the corner.

Next, do not always think of failure as a negative thing. Far too often, everyone is led to think that if they fail at something, then the world is over. This is far from the case. Think about how many times Thomas Edison failed at making the light bulb (1000, if you didn’t know.) What if after one try he threw up his hands and went to work in a store for the rest of his life?

Think about Walt Disney. He was fired from writing for a newspaper because the editor said he lacked imagination. These men took their failures and used them to succeed. Do not ever think of failures as a barrier; think of them as stepping stones to your success. Work to improve your art, then try again

Lastly, always make sure that you are truly doing the best you can. When you are trying to accomplish anything in life, you need to always to it to the best of your abilities. If you fail at anything, take a little bit, then look back and ask “is this really the best I could do?” If yes, then look at the previous paragraph and try again. If no, then find where you can improve and make sure that you do your very best next time. You can do anything that you set your mind to. Work as hard as you can and results will come.

One final thing I want you to always remember is to not get discouraged when you constantly fail. I promise you that I have been in the lowest places imaginable, so I know what you might be going through: Nothing is working, failure is coming left and right, your stress is maxed out. Just take a step back, take a breath and keep on going. I cannot promise you that if you keep trying, that you will be the next millionaire. But I can promise you that if you do the best you can, and work as hard as you can, then you will eventually achieve your goals. More than that, you will be happy with where you are because you know you truly did everything possible to get there.