I also experienced laid-off, not a failure at all

There are lots of reasons for laid-off. Sometimes, a new executive may just want to push out current staff to bring in his/her friends. This situation is very typical at the higher level. Why do you want to make a hard thing even harder for yourself?

When I have job openings and look for people, I never exclude people who were laid off. Many great people I hired have some out-of-work experiences. They tend to appreciate opportunities more than others.