Perseverance in the face of repeated failure is often more instructive than success itself. Illustrate with a suitable example.

Perseverance is the ethical capacity to hold to a chosen course when effort yields no reward. Success merely confirms what already works; repeated failure tests the motivation behind action, and is therefore the sterner teacher. Lionel Messi's international career illustrates this well.

The example: two decades of near-misses

• Early success came quickly — Olympic gold with Argentina at Beijing 2008 [5] — yet the senior team's major titles stayed out of reach.
• Runner-up at the 2014 World Cup, he then missed his penalty in the 2016 Copa América Centenario final shoot-out defeat to Chile.
• In June 2016, at 29, he announced his retirement from international football, saying the national team was "over" for him [3] — a public admission of defeat.

Why the failure instructed more than the trophies

• He reversed the decision within weeks, choosing to return and fix things "from inside" rather than exit — accountability preferred over escape [4].
• Failure forced a redefinition of role: from individual brilliance to team-oriented captaincy, culminating in Argentina's 2022 World Cup title after a 36-year wait [1].
• Perseverance still guarantees nothing — his final act was a 1-0 defeat to Spain in the 2026 World Cup final [2], before retiring with 207 caps and 125 goals [1]. The worth lay in sustained effort, not the outcome — the essence of Nishkama Karma.

Ethical lessons transferable to public service

• Emotional intelligence: absorbing sustained public criticism without resentment or withdrawal.
• Perseverance is not obstinacy: it must be paired with honest self-correction, as his changed style of leadership showed.
• For a civil servant facing failed schemes, transfers or hostile scrutiny, resilience with reflection sustains long-term integrity.

Failure, unlike success, exposes whether commitment rests on results or on values. The instructive element is not endurance alone but endurance joined to learning and humility. A public servant who internalises this converts setbacks into institutional memory, serving the constitutional ideal of fraternity and dedicated service far beyond personal achievement.