Men in LTRs or marriages,

How much effort did you put before the start of the relationship?

Did you ever do anything that could have constituted as "chasing" or being persistent?

Or is it best to always stick to the principle of she should be showing a ton of interest from the very beginning?

l ask, because we always hear of stories where guys were very persistent before the woman finally fell in love with him. Are those relationships always going to be doomed to fail?

I see potential in an LTR (which is extremely rare for me), but she left me on delivered after our date even though she texted saying she had a good time. Do I keep pursuing?

For context, we were close friends a long time ago.

It goes without saying, but my biggest concern when choosing to get into an LTR is probability of a successful marriage, ie. never getting divorced.

So the side but related question is: What are the best predictors for a lasting marriage/LTR?