Melville isn't simply praising ambition over safety—he's making a claim about what constitutes actual success. A perfect imitation, however flawlessly executed, leaves you dependent on someone else's vision and therefore perpetually second-rate in your own estimation. Consider the difference between a musician who masters every existing technique but plays nothing of their own versus one who writes a clumsy, awkward song that unmistakably belongs to them; the latter has created something that can grow and evolve, while the former has merely become a skilled mirror. Melville understood that failure in pursuit of your own truth is the only kind of failure that doesn't diminish you.