[techhelpbb]

Persistence, patience and healthy dose of reality.

You did not fail.
You tried something that did not work despite best effort and you can prove it with a realistic analysis of the evidence.

Patience because people, politicians and life are generally frustrating.
If everyone else jumped off a bridge would you?
Sure you would if they all rush you hard enough!
Once you clear the edge - the 'wanted to' part is less relevant.

Knowing how to get stuff done with what you have is the name of the game for engineers. Science hands you the pieces. You have to figure out how to apply that knowledge to make it useful. With skill and some luck your solution stands the test of time.

Communications is a valuable skill but realistically if you are not persistent in finding the most effective communications for a particular audience you are just wasting opportunity. Politicians look at it differently. You have to find the simplest way to grab your target audience and bring them along. Simplicity makes it easy to convince people that something is transparent (even if that catch phrase is a total bold face lie based on no evidence what so ever).