No one says about the guy that finishes 4th at the Olympics, "Wow, he must have worked really hard!"
No one cares about the people that almost make it.
But, if you're the one that's putting in the work, you should care. The world will judge you based on your accomplishments, but the scale you use can be slightly different. Of course, successes are great. But hard work and lessons learned are most often more valuable than single stories of success.
Keep working toward your goal. If your performance has been judged poor in the past, evaluate the work you've put in and see where you can get better.
Most importantly, don't listen to them when they tell you to quit.