I’ve always felt a failure
In everything I’ve done
It always ends disastrously
However well begun
So little satisfaction
In anything I try
I’m born to feel a failure
Oh! please, please tell me why
 
I’m looking for approval?
To hear the words “Well done”?
The seal of approbation
That I have never won
Someone will always fault me
I’ll feel I’ve come up short
They’ll say “You could try harder”
Always that same retort
 
A never ending story
With failure, Oh so rife!
And yet I keep on striving
For value in my life
But I feel doomed to failure
Experiencing gall
No matter what I strive for
I will fail it all
 
I will never measure up
I’ll always get it wrong
I will always compromise
When I should be strong
And when I am expressing thoughts
Voicing what seems real
Then I’m told it isn’t so
That isn’t what I feel
 
I have tried throughout my life
But not succeeded yet
Striving to attain the goals
To meet the standards set
So many goals and targets
Imposed upon our track
And so many more of them
Amassing at our back
 
It doesn’t matter, does it?
I know I have no chance
Even were I good enough
Some parlous circumstance
Would occur to spoil it all
And make my efforts vain
Make it seem I hadn’t tried
That I had failed again