part of me agrees with you, but part of me also sees that our definition of "success" is a moving target. often succeeding from trying is possible, since effort

part of me agrees with you, but part of me also sees that our definition of "success" is a moving target. often succeeding from trying is possible, since effort leads to progress and effort creates opportunities....except that "success" has come to be more and more narrowly defined---for example, outrageously high income and celebrity status, rather than stable, sustainable job. edit: attitude is also important to success, so it's not clear to me what the effect of "protagonist fails" would have on audiences. just as catharsis has a different effect than random-failure, inspiring success has a different effect than training-montage.