I personally would say that I must have been a failure for the nearly 40 years that I've hunted under this criteria. You see, each year, I'm after a "new world record" or the world record that will never be broken. I haven't achieved that and few of us have. Maybe few would admit it but I'd bet that our goal and dream most of the time is to shoot the biggest deer that there is (of course there are always other goals too that have already been mentioned). It doesn't mean that I'm going to stop hunting. I'll go afterHIM again next year and on and on until I'm dead or can't go anymore. But, every time I go, I just hope that HE steps in that shooting laneso I can have a crack at him. HE may not be within 3,000 miles of me, but I'm still gunning for HIM just the same. So, under your criteria and in your eyes, I'm a miserable failure. I hate to admit it but that must be the case. And with over 100 deer under my belt and some of them pretty nice especially considering where I've hunted, I thought I had done pretty good. You have just deflated any little bit of ego I had left but it won't stop me from staying after my goal but settling for a little less if that's what I have to do even up to passing on every deer that I have the opportunity to harvest but doesn't meet my criteria at the time. That's a pretty hefty definition of failure you have. Mine is not the same, but to each his own. I'm guessing that if you had your goal set on killing the great 160" deer that you have been seeing and hunting and the next world record stepped out and you shot him, you would have failed since you didn't actually get the one you set out to get but would one actually admit that they failed but had such success even at killing? I personally think not. Hunting is much more than that to me after all these years and I'll just continue to define my own failures and not push my standards on anyone else. Enjoy the hunt guys. That's what it's all about to me.