A man without a cent to his name, missing his front teeth, and reeking of Listerine (the choice of penniless drunks everywhere) once told me the following after I had struck out with a girl I wanted to date:

"You want some advice on women? You just gotta keep trying. Look at me, I'm not much to look at, but I get laid all the time. You know why? I just keep trying. I get turned down all the time - I know it's hard to believe - but I just get back in there and talk to someone else. Stop whining about getting turned down and just go talk to someone else. There's always someone else."

This is a true story. I worked at a campground in the summers in high school, and this drunk used to visit the store and talk for awhile every few days. He was highly personable and I wondered why a man who preached persistence did not have a decent job - or any job for that matter. He said:

"I'm just lazy. I work hard for what I want, but I don't want much."

So you have to read between the lines. He said a lot of idiotic things as well. The man got picked up by the cops a few days later for assaulting someone in the campground while he was intoxicated; not exactly a model citizen or a great example of success.

But some of the aforementioned still rings true: When you fail at something that is worth the spoils you need to keep trying. Sometimes you need to accept failure, and other times you need to remain persistent. In life, love, marriage, kids, buying a home, winning the race; in every trial there is the possibility of failure. However, how you deal with that failure determines your success more than the outcome itself.

Next time: Finding a mortgage