When you can’t win the game, change the board. New skill, new market, new room.

Losing repeatedly in the same place sometimes means you need to work harder, and sometimes means the competition is simply wrong for you. Being tenth best at what everybody in your school does is a different life from being the only one who does something slightly unusual. Moving is not surrender. It is choosing a field where your particular mix is rare.

Look at what you are competing in and count how many people are doing the same thing. Then ask what you could combine it with that almost nobody nearby has. A second skill bolted onto the first, or a different room entirely, and the numbers change shape.