Whenever you fail at something the temptation may be to hide the failure as quickly as possible and to pretend that it never happened.
This is not the way of the successful.
I heard an amazing quote the other day that went: "Every failure is a brick in my palace".
After hearing this I took the time to think about what it really meant.
He is basically saying that without failure and embarrassment you'll never have a palace (I take the 'palace' to be a metaphor for success) and that each disappointment and each failure simply makes your palace bigger and stronger.
This is a great way of looking at things (and the mindset that I recommend that everyone take), because then you can never really fail - you can only succeed or learn a lesson.
In Texas, when someone fails at something (and Texans' failures are often bigger than most, as EVERYTHING is bigger in Texas) they don't hide it - they feature it and display it proudly.
Most of all, they learn from their failures by making them public (to their friends and family).
This helps them to talk about them so they can discuss what went wrong, and how they can improve next time.
It seems that we live in a culture where it is better to not try at all than to try, fail and look bad.
Most people don't want the disappointment or embarrassment attached, so they don't bother trying at all (although most people would never admit this fact).