“Better luck next time”—a line that everyone dreads. In Hindi, people say, “Jo hota hai achhe ke liye hota hai” or “Sab kismat ka khel hai.” In English, they say, “It’s all about destiny, and God has a plan for you.”
If everything is truly pre-planned and decided by God, then why did God decide for me to face this terrifying feeling of failure? Failure is a journey that no one wishes to experience. They always say that success is the only way to live life, but what about when things don’t go as planned? What about when life has something else hidden for you—a journey that no one wants to experience, but many do? So often, no one acknowledges the pain in this journey’s thorns.
The pressure to avoid failure is so real that many spend their lives doing everything they can to avoid it, making each decision so carefully that they never have to face failure. But there’s much more to failure than just the terrifying experience of facing it. Imagine that you’re right there, about to achieve what you’ve dreamt of, but you miss it because of something beyond your control. Is that failure? Not really, but it can make you feel like one.
So what does “better luck next time” truly mean? Does it actually indicate that you’re just another failure, or does it mean there’s better luck waiting for you in the next moments of your life? A friend of mine had always been at the top of her classes. She was the competition for her classmates, her teachers’ favorite, taking competitive exams—but then, life hit her with the hardest blow she’d ever faced, something she had never planned to experience. Due to her father’s job, she kept shifting schools, craving consistency, and just wanted to stay in her college for three years. In 2022, she took entrance exams for several colleges, but she was especially passionate about one of them.
One night, just before her birthday, her results were announced, and for the first time, she felt an unfamiliar rush of anxiety. The site wasn’t loading, and with each passing second, she grew more anxious. She tried to sleep but ended up checking on her mother’s phone, and there it was—the line: “Better luck next time.” Tears streamed down her face as she tried to hide from her parents. For the first time, she felt like a failure, like it was all over.
The next morning felt surreal, but she accepted it quickly. She still had hope for the next result, which was released a week later, but again it read, “Better luck next time.” Another heartbreak. Another failure. This time, she missed the cutoff by just five marks—a number that, despite being small, felt overwhelmingly large at that moment. She told herself that one more “better luck next time” would be the end for her.
With little hope, she checked the results for another college she’d applied to, her mother by her side. And this time, she got in. Standing on cloud nine, she called her father to share her happiness. “Ecstatic” was the only word to describe her feelings. But she wasn’t prepared for what the coming years held for her. She went to Mumbai, started college, and after a month, she received an email stating, “You’ll have to cancel your admission or change campus because you don’t meet a certain requirement.” Another heartbreak. Another failure.
She transferred to a campus in Hyderabad, where she was happy—but she didn’t know the roller coaster had just begun. She struggled in her first and second semesters, but managed to clear her backlogs. Then came the third semester. One subject stood between her and her future, and her re-exam results finally came in. She didn’t have the courage to check them, but when she did, it was a big “F.” Another heartbreak. Another failure. She broke down. The next morning, she realized it wasn’t a dream. Her parents, true angels, supported her through it. Her dream felt shattered. While she stayed there, she was miserable but had become an expert at hiding it. She had friends, yet she felt like she had no one. One night, she called her father, crying for hours, and he said, “Jo hota hai achhe ke liye hota hai.” She was lucky to have such considerate parents.
She returned home and enrolled in a college there. She was back in the place she had wanted to escape, resigned to the idea that she might just be another failure. Her friends in Hyderabad weren’t particularly close, and she assumed she’d never make close friends here either. It was the least of her concerns.
Starting over in her second year broke her. After this experience, watching anyone else fail hurt her as if she had failed herself. She decided not to give up on her younger self, her current self, and her future self. She had a dream, and she wanted to fulfill it. So what if she didn’t get a degree from the college she had her heart set on? She was determined to build the life she wanted. After returning to her hometown college, she met some great people, started working toward her ambitions, and focused on improving herself. She wasn’t perfectly consistent, but she pulled herself together every day, refusing to become another failure.
Even after dealing with the worst phase of her life, she gathered her strength and realized she was not a failure; these were just thorns on the road to success. If I were to describe her now, I’d say she’s never been better. She’s her happiest self, working on her goals. It’s not all easy, and sometimes she still feels the sting in her heart, but looking at what she’s achieved now, she realizes she could never have done it in the strict environment of that other place. As superficial as it sounds, she truly is in a better place. She has never been happier compared to the last two years.
So what does “better luck next time” truly mean? Does it really signify failure, or does it hint at better luck waiting for you in the next chapter of your life? I choose the latter, because, “Vo kehte haina, jo hota hai achhe ke liye hota hai.” No matter how hard things get, faith in yourself can heal everything.