You lose if you don't do what you want. A lot of times in our day to day life we are affected from other people - family - friends.
This is why most people are like a sheep. We watch what is the herd doing and we do the same. Because if you go out from the herd you are individual and this is not accepted in our world.
We can't blame ourselves. It's simply our instinct to follow the crowd. We're thinking that everyone's doing it, so it's probably the best thing out there. In reality, you can be a sheep and still be in good hands. But you can also not follow the crowd, do silly stuffs, do mistakes and learn from it, and it the end be in a good place. A lot of things can happen but following the crowd and listening to other people alone doesn't always guarantee failure. And just because you finally chose to become different, doesn't mean that you'll do better than most.