"Our world is one of second chances, of comebacks and turn arounds." So true. It seems that every major success story had a dark period when things weren't going well. The comeback may be more the rule than the exception.
I forget who said it (it might have even been pg, too lazy to google atm) but there are a lot of situations that are defined by failures and where it's utterly important to never fail and to avoid any elements of weakness (school, some corporate environments, etc.), however in life (and especially in entrepreneurship) it's the rare successes that define you, not the failures.