Can a lost cause be its own salvation?

I'm 99.99% sure this is the first time I've ever used a question as a blog post title. It's not a rhetorical question, by the way. It has an answer, and I believe the answer is yes. Let me explain. Last night, after a certain point, I was sure the first tournament I'd entered was a lost cause. Accordingly, I entered another, while still playing out the first. I promptly hit the rail in the second one. Still believing the first to be a lost cause, I entered a third. I lasted more hands in the third than I had in the second, but still wound up hitting the rail. Still alive in the first, I finally realized it wasn't a lost cause after all; I eventually made the money. I firmly believe that playing the other two tournaments to make up for the lost cause tournament enabled me to play that lost cause tournament in a way that actually maximized my chances of making the money. So the lost cause was indeed its own salvation. Too bad the second and third tournaments turned out to be bona fide lost causes :-)

style flavor buy_in entry players entries paid place winnings

MTT   NLHE    45000  5000       6     129   36    17   110000
MTT   NLHE    87000 13000       6      71   18    54        0
MTT   NLHE   174000 26000       6      68   18    29        0

delta: $-240,000
MTT NLHE balance: $8,986,668
2020 balance: $2,169,000
balance: $63,977,010