I completely agree with #2: Don't think you have to take home game every time to be sucessful.

There have been many times when I could have gotten a deer (buck or doe) and passed or just couldn't get a shot off. And there have been times where I didn't even get a deer in range or see one at all. Either way, I have considered many hunts successful when I did not get a deer because I would see a certain deer take a particular travel route, work the wind, do something I hadn't seen before, etc. etc. I consider a hunt successful when I have learned something new about the query I'm chasing, bottom line.