Feeling like a failure has little correlation with actually failing. There are people who have failed more times than you and I can count, who are happily continuing in their work. There are others who have achieved more than most of us can imagine, who go to work each day feeling inadequate, behind, and yes, like failures and frauds. These are not cases of extraordinary outliers. In fact, external data is almost useless in figuring out whether or not someone is going to adopt the narrative of being a failure. Failure (as seen from the outside) is an event. It’s a moment when the spec isn’t met, when a project isn’t completed as planned …
https://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2015/10/on-feeling-like-a-failure.html