All investments are risky. A lot of things that people expect never to lose them money, like real estate for example, can sometimes drop loads and some things can even end up going to zero. It's easy to get cocky when you're dealing with these things but remember that low risk can actually be quite high when paired with low returns.
Yes all the investments are risky some are more and some are a little risky but we cannot say that there is a zero risk element in any investment, because of the systematic risk factors. One can only measure and minimize the unsystematic risk which are basically most of the time in your control. On the other hand when we talk about the systematic risk, it is totally out of control of the human beings.
Failure in what to pick to invest on is a part of life. You would never seem to pick what you would actually do because, by the time you learn that you have picked the right one, you will enjoy it and finally be successful. There are a lot of things to learn about when you fail, what your wrong decisions are and sometimes what the cues that you have. It's good to have hope that you won't give up because there is a time where you would get back up.