Prompt: Draw a pony following their dreams / Draw a pony feeling defeated
This is a both prompts post.
Simply put, sometimes to need to fail at your dreams to find out what they really are.
Really though isn’t this the heart of the redemption arc in many cases? The person on the wrong side of things finds something of equal or greater value by changing who they are. Something they didn’t know was an option, or there was no path they could see to it opens up. In Mac’s case he was never quite good enough. He was good enough, but in a very different place.