In any endeavor, there is a chance that you won’t be successful.
If you are aware of your chances of a successful outcome at the beginning of an endeavor that does not mean you shouldn’t attempt it.
You can use the chance of failure as a metric and a motivation to strategize your path to the outcome prior to starting the journey.
Regardless of achieving or not achieving the outcome, how can the endeavor be a success? There are many different ways it could be a success.
The simplest case is that you will gain experience from pursuing the outcome. This will increase your chance of success the next time you attempt the outcome. This is most relevant for outcomes that you will attempt many times. Edison famously tried thousands of times for the outcome of an electric light bulb.
Another case is building assets towards the outcome that can be used for other outcomes. If your outcome is losing weight, the journey to lose weight may result in learning new recipes, learning new activities, and more organized shopping trips. All these are benefits that can be used for other outcomes.
The startup world is full of examples of companies that built a set of assets from one outcome and then pivoted to another. Netflix started as a DVD distribution.
Life is a journey, not a destination. As you go on your journal, focus on becoming more valuable each day.