Some risks are worth it because of what you’ll learn even if it fails. Count the lesson before you count the odds.

Most thinking about risk only counts the prize: did you get in, did you make the team. That leaves out the part you keep either way, which is everything the attempt taught you about the work and about yourself. Some attempts are worth making at poor odds because even the losing version leaves you better equipped. Others are not, and naming the lesson in advance is how you tell them apart.

Before your next attempt, write down what you will have learned whichever way it goes. If that sentence comes out empty, the odds are your only remaining argument.