Perhaps the first failure instilled so much conviction of failure, that failure was the predetermined result of all further attempts.
We become what we believe with conviction - it plays out in our further experience.
“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he”
“Let it be unto you as you have believed”
&c.
It seems to me that people who become convinced of the absolute truth of negative experiences just lock themselves in, dig themselves deeper into more of the same.
People who make effort to take bad experiences more lightly, objectively, and don’t assume that they represent a rule or an ultimate truth, are much more free.
Nothing to do with belief.
I am talking cold hard statistics gathered from actual marriages and divorces.
80% of divorces filed by women. Half of all 1st marriages end in divorce and its in the 60s percent range for 2nd, and 70s percent for 3rd or more. As a man you are nuts to get married knowing these objective statistics.