I am guessing all of us have had to deal with dead end streets. We go down a hopeful road investing our time, funds, hopes, and dreams only to wind up realizing it wasn't where we needed to be.
We refer to our loss as a sunk cost: time, energy, and opportunities gone.
I might suggest a different viewpoint. Every path we take, for better or for worse, is an investment in our personal growth. And, to be honest, those dead end streets? Those failures where we lick our chops and hang our heads? Those are the most valuable of them all.
We took a chance and arrived at a new place we would never have gone to had we chickened out.
Not going where we imagined we'd be, or not getting what it is we had hoped for is often humbling.
When this happens to me I always have to remind myself that the cost of failure is made up in multifold ways by the life lessons we gain.
The cost of inaction is far more expensive than the few failures we face along life's path.
