The real wisdom here lies in distinguishing between *events* and *identity*—a defeat is something that happens to you, while being defeated is something you *become*. Angelou isn't offering the generic cheerleading notion that you should bounce back; she's identifying the precise moment when resilience matters most: that internal choice, after the loss is already real and undeniable, to refuse the narrative that you are broken. A person returning to job applications after the fiftieth rejection doesn't need permission to try again—they need to remember that each "no" is an incident, not a verdict on who they are.