((((Mr V)))),

You are not a failure just because you took time out to "learn" things and didn't happen to end up being "the best" at it.

The human brain doesn't really work like that either. What typically happens is we "learn" things as we go along, and we don't have to be the "best" at these things, we just take pride in "learning" and as we continue to learn "skills" and "gain knowledge" along the way we gradually build in our brains and often what ususally happens for many people is they eventually utilize these learning experiences into something unique or they develope into being a success at something from the accumulation of what they learned.

If you really think about the greats, well, they were not "great" right away, what really happened is after they spent time learning different things they put it all together into whatever they produced that was great and unique about each of them.

Einstein didn't immediately come up with the saying he had about a fish climbing a tree, he grew to eventually learn that and came out with that statement. There are lots of things Einstein would have failed at, he wasn't a world class athlete, he didn't sing and become the American Idol of his day etc. It took him time to become the success we all know him for.

I personally would have never guessed what I ended up doing for my own business when I was your age. But now that I think of it, what I did was an accumulation of different skills I developed over several years of learning different things.

I know you hate to be told that you are young yet V, but honestly, alot of people don't get to be great at something right away or at your age, it takes time for most people and is typically a result of different things they learned along the way.

I think it is great that you "taught yourself how to play and understand the game of chess", that is a hard game to learn, so you were not the best at it, but there is still something there in your brain that you gained from taking your time to learn that and that might become part of something you eventually do down the road that clicks well for you. Even your experience with your insects and photography, that too can be a part of something else down the road that you haven't even thought of yet. That is how the brain works for us. We each have something we can eventually "do well" but it takes time for most of us to try different things, accumulate them in our brains before we find that thing that really "clicks" with each of us.

Just saying......nothing you learn is a "failure" it is an add to your brain that can be there for something you can't even imagine becoming someday.