A decade ago, St. Louis University communications professor Robert Krizek studied what athletes said after losing a big game. The stigma seems to be fading. Failure still has a sting. Think Bill Buckner. Any long-suffering Red Sox fan can tell you about the ground ball that rolled underneath Buckner's glove costing Boston the 1986 World Series.
Loss does linger.
Ultimately, whether failure is viewed as a sting or spark rests with its victim. It was deeply hurtful. I was on the front page of nearly every paper in the Western world. It didn't make me feel like a failure, but it made me want to make up for it in other ways. Failure isn't supposed to feel good.