You may have found this site as part of your endless search for what to do next with your life. Perhaps you, like us, continue to search for the Next Big Thing that will increase your happiness or financial wealth or public interest in your project or number of hugs you receive in a given day.

Despite perceived failures, despite financial setbacks, we continue to search for the next opportunity to improve our lives. The alternative is to stop exploring and attempting, to hole up in an enclosed space because the world outside is scary and expensive and painful. Essentially, to believe that curiosity is too expensive for us. To believe that we need a bigger stack of money or a regular source of income or someone smarter or more connected than us in order for curiosity to ever pay off with a success.

But we won't do that, not long-term at least. We remain curious despite setbacks because we won't settle. Because we know that we never know where the next action will lead and the chances of something valuable happening are at least equal to the chances of something painful transpiring.

Failure doesn't have just one definition. According to the growth mindset, failure simply means you didn't learn anything. Failure does not mean "didn't accomplish the thing I was told was best for me."

Not obtaining a home through a mortgage means we must analyze what, exactly, we want and need in a home and then pursue other ways for obtaining them. What looks like failure is actually the position where we are forced to explore other options.