The loss matters less once it has improved your judgment.

A loss that sharpened how you see is not fully a loss. Judgment is the thing that shapes every future decision, and improving it pays out over years in ways that are hard to trace back. The cost was real and the return can be larger than it looks.

Some time after a setback, ask what you now see more clearly: about people, about timing, about yourself. Notice where that clarity has already saved you something. The accounting looks different from a distance.