What is the meaning of [A miss as a good as a mile]

Whether you have missed your objective by a narrow margin or a wide one, you
have still failed. Suppose that you and your friend Douglas are among the
twenty applicants for a job. Suppose that the list is whittled down until only
you and Douglas remain. Suppose that Douglas is given the job. Certainly you
are very unlucky, yet you are in exactly the same position as the other
eighteen applicants; however narrow the margin, you have failed.