I think that answering your question is very dependent on the situation, and ones personal perspective.
For example, if a team misses a milestone due lack of preparation and negligence. What I mean to say is due to a lack of preparation. Then this is most definitely not a ” link to future success” . This is simply a failure, a misuse of company money, resources and time. This can not be spun any other way.
On the other hand, if a milestone is missed due to uncontrollable variable then this is a different scenario. If a team was completely prepared and something came out of the blue which caused a milestone to be missed, then this could be viewed as a “link to future success.” If what caused a milestone to be missed was so big and unpredictable then most likely it was bound to happen sooner or later, and it is most likely better that it happened while the project was still in development stages. That way possibly harm to someone and company lawsuits can be avoided.
Overall though I believe that this second scenario is very unlikely to occur. It is very difficult for some thing to come out of no where which could affect a project that badly. Most likely, if the team is well prepared then they will be able to predict any setbacks that may occur. So ultimately, I do not believe a missed milestone should be seen as a positive “link to success.”