Say out loud one thing you know for certain. Not something impressive. Something so ordinary that it feels silly to say.
A young monk sailed to China and stayed there for years, studying under a hard teacher. When he came home people asked what he had brought back. He said: I learned that the eyes are set across and the nose runs straight down. That was all.
He was not joking and he was not being modest. He had gone looking for something extraordinary and came home able to see an ordinary face. That is not the same as coming home with nothing.
What are you calling a waste of time because it did not end in something you can show?
Coming back with something plain is not the same as coming back empty.