There is no objective criteria for either success or failure. People who achieve their goals are successful, those who don't are not.
Everything you do sends a message about who you are and what you value.
Ethics is not about the way things are, it is about the way things ought to be.
Don't sacrifice a good life for a good time.
Character is ethics in action.
The opposite of success is not failure. Unsuccessful efforts are not failures unless they so discourage you that you abandon further efforts to achieve your goal. Even then, the venture or effort may be a failure but you are not. Failure is an event not a character trait.