Samuel Beckett wrote: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” It’s unclear if Beckett was a flyfisher, but he certainly possessed the sort of neural wiring common to dry fly purists, permit junkies, carp stalkers and steelheaders, the best of which often fail spectacularly.

Success or failure are ultimately determined by outcome, but the metrics for assessing the value in the experience are far more forgiving, and when brought into the after-action review, allow us to fail…or to fail better; a concept especially well-suited to flyfishing, where the skunk waits in the weeds and scorekeeping goes to die.

From Confucius—“It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop”—to Goethe—“By seeking and blundering we learn”—to Thomas Edison, who claimed to have never failed, but rather to have “found 10,000 ways that won’t work,” steady voices inspire us to persevere, but also to focus on the process.

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