But I don't think I would fail If I was disciplined and made wise choices.

Many people believe they will be the disciplined one, but then they want to show their friends who went to college that they can afford a brand new F150.

The second reason was that I was not persistent or disciplined about continuing regularly with the investments. 

Jason i have sold 4 homes through Naca in Jackson MS.. its a great program.... but it takes WORK and for whatever reason half the people that start it cant finish it.. they dont have the self discipline to finish the course..

@Lindsay Ferlin I see this is your first post so welcome to BP.Part of the answer depends on you and your commitment and discipline. 

Overeducated in a discipline without jobs, lacking motivation to improve their life and unwilling to seek viable employment. 

I’d agree w almost everything everyone has said in this thread but I’d add personal financial discipline to the long list as well as the importance of not spending or dipping into your capital aka savings for odds and ends on the Journey.

So what I do first is go to my area's largest chain supermarket, Giant Eagle, and buy a gift card for Giant Eagle Supermarkets.I pay for the Giant Eagle gift card with the Barclays Mastercard, accruing their travel miles in their frequent flyer program (American offers the most flights out of Pittsburgh).I also link the purchase to my Giant Eagle rewards account, which offers me cheaper prices on gasoline at the many GetGo gas stations Giant Eagle runs all over my area.The next step is to use the Giant Eagle gift card to buy a Home Depot gift card at another or the same Giant Eagle, which means that the same purchase eventually gives me double fuel rewards (you cannot use a Giant Eagle gift card to buy another Giant Eagle gift card or of course that's what I'd be doing, again and again, until they'd be paying me to pump gas at their stations).Finally, I use the Home Depot gift card at Home Depot to buy the stuff I need.Understand, you need iron financial discipline with credit cards to run these kinds of travel and rewards hacking schemes, or sooner or later, you're going to be spending with no sure way of paying them back ON TIME EVERY TIME.

Invest from a solid foundation of financial discipline.

If you can not train yourself to clear your debt it is unlikely you will have the discipline to be a successful investor.