Keep this in mind: unless the opponents in the competition are clearly delineated, the competition is between past-you and future-you.

There are a lot of things I suck at. A lot of them I don't care to be good at - I will never get even vaguely good at tennis. But some of them, yeah - I want to not suck. Would you believe I picked up skateboarding? At 37?

And yes. I injured myself a lot. And I looked foolish. And I will never shred. But every time I go out, I get better. I can stop now without flinging myself into a bush. I'm a long goddamn way from bombing hills but I can go down them without dying. And I can wear Arbor swag without being a poseur.

Future-me is kicking past-me's ass.

This is more than an internal frame of reference, too. Your friends that can absolutely clobber you at everything? That gives them an opportunity to teach - which means you have an opportunity to learn. When you demonstrate that you are teachable, that permits them to observe that they're good teachers. Win-win all around.

You also need to keep in mind that almost-succeeding at something you had a slim chance at will always impress more than beating handily that which was easily within your power. There is such a thing as an impressive failure, and we will always read the book that strived for greatness but didn't quite hit it over the book that is solidly, predictably in the comfort zone of the author.

As humans, we respect the reach. We strive to be better. We test ourselves and we struggle. Without the struggle there is no growth, and without growth we die.

You should read this.

RE: the maps - you have to winnow it down in order to see what your market is. Let's start with

A) All people

B) the subset of "all people" who like maps

C) the subset of "people who like maps" who like very specific maps

D) the subset of "people who like very specific maps" who like very specific maps of Holland

E) the subset of "people who like very specific maps of Holland" who are willing to drop $40 on one

F) the subset of "people willing to drop $40 on a very specific map of Holland" who are even aware of such a thing

Your failure is the amount of time and money you sunk into it that was not directly related to your enjoyment of the process divided by the learning experience.

And I'll bet that number is tiny.

(and of seriously messed-up units)