Why even assume that a person would end end uo decks rated if plan-a didn't work out? Very rarely is a person NOT rewarded for effort.
Take Chris Pratt for example. Clearly he worked his ass off his entire career.
He may have had an original goal of being Robert Deniro or a Will Smith with an outstanding career and net worth over 250million.
Guess what, he's not Bob or Will. Pratt is only worth 20 million. So in a sense he failed.
If his career ends tomorrow, he would have failed also.
But striving to be better than Bob or Will, earned Pratt a wonderful career so far. He ended up doing better than every single person he's ever known growing up. if he quits today he still would have ended up far better than imagined. Despite failing to reach will smith levels of success.
See, it really makes no sense in looking at failure. We all fail... but a person who worked tirelessly towards goal-a will be rewarded than a person who settled for plan-c, and focused most of his time slacking off.
Using myself as an example, I "failed" too.
I grew up in poverty, in public housing, in a crime ridden neighborhood. My plan-a was to do the impossible, what all of my friends and family couldn't do, and that was to move out and be successful. My plan-a was called out as bullshit or impossible by everyone I knew. This left me isolated, spending most of my evenings and weekends working towards plan-a. I removed virtually everyone I ever knew from my life because they weren't focused on positivity and plan-a. I avoided having children settling down until I achieved plan-a. I took on tremendous personal strain and worked tirelessly during work, after work, after school, and on the weekends. I took on debts (and repaid then). I starved. I cried. I pushed myself as far as I could.
Today, I achieved plan-a. I earn 6 figures, no debt, drug free, fantastic career, live in a safe neighborhood and helped my family a ton. To many this is a success story. However I did also fail. I failed to own a mansion, I failed to have enough money to retire early, I failed to have children, I failed to help others in my neighborhood etc etc.
But by trying and working as hard as I could with a "impossible" goal in mind, I achieved more than 99% of everyone that I know. If I didn't try at all, I would still be living in public housing earning minimum wage.