Innovation requires both courage and perseverance.
So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.
I have already carried out my duty. I have proved the Poincaré conjecture and I have nothing more to do in mathematics.