As you know from school, it’s when you have not prepared for the test that you have the fear of failing. And if you have prepared, even if you fail, you’ve done your best.

The remark frames fear of failure as less a prophecy of incompetence than a symptom of avoidance. By invoking the familiar school “test,” Walker links anxiety to the knowledge that one has not done the preparatory work—reading, practicing, showing up. Preparation does not guarantee success, but it changes the moral and psychological stakes: if you fail after genuine effort, the failure is informational rather than shameful. The quote thus shifts the focus from outcomes to agency and integrity, suggesting that courage is built through disciplined engagement with what matters, not through certainty of winning.