
Sir Pepe McD'inkleberg Nodriguez
It's the try that implies success or failure that doesn't make sense to me. Because every step forward is a learning experience, fun or not so fun, and is a success by the fact that it's a step in your growing. Now, if you don't do anything at all. Well, sometimes nothing is the best thing to do (and I'll write more about that later). But if you WANT to do something but don't make any effort because you are afraid you might fail….well, even though there's no failure either, I would say the closest you can get to failure is not to try at all when it is something that you want!
All failure is imaginary
Self esteem is important for many reasons. An important one here is that it gives us extra boosts of energy when we are trying something new later on, especially something that seems hard. When we try the new hard thing, we remember that it feels good to try new things and do things that reach a desired goal. (Of course, all within reason! I don't mean to try every single impulse if it's like really dangerous, like jumping off the roof without a big bouncy safety net - please do not do that! ;o)
Sometimes the word "succeed" makes sense
What I find helps with "being let down" about a goal is to stay open to how achieving the goal may appear, and don't make your happiness depend on reaching the goal. A big part of happiness is in trying the new things to reach a goal. Because you may decide half way towards a goal that it's not really something you are interested in anymore and then change direction, choose a new goal. That is a success because you learned about yourself and know more clearly what you want, what your next goal is.
So yes, try try again. Do it because you know it helps your self esteem. But there is no failure. Every effort is a success because it's part of learning and growing!