Mr. Obama once proudly said the U.S. never lost any major battles during the Vietnam War. While that may be true, they eventually lost the war.
In reality, often times you have to be willing to lose battles to win the war. That’s applicable even not in war time.

Every winner once loses.

Fortunately, you don’t always have to “win”. Sometimes it’s better to lose an argument, a game, a girl to achieve your goals and more long term success. The difference is WINNERS win when it matters. They win when it counts. There are so-called “big match” players who consistently perform well the finals.

Everyone makes mistakes.

The more mistakes you make, the more you learn. So what you can do is to make as many mistakes as possible when it’s not important;  in practice.

Try. Make mistakes. Learn and move on.

No one will ever remember who came in second. So prepare, practice and WIN when it matters!