The importance of trying

You have all heard often enough about all journeys start with a single step. Before ever you start, you also need to make up your mind that you can do it. AND after starting you need to have the determination to persist with it. Whether it is journeys or projects or learning...it is important to make up your mind to do it; to start doing it; and to persevere to the finish.

Tiru, of course, has this to say about it...

Arumai udaiththendru asaavaamai vendum perumai muyarchchi tharum - Tirukkural

Don't lose heart considering the job at hand as too tough; your efforts will grant you the expertise to succeed - Loose Translation

The successful, when they come across a difficult project, do not sit on the hands and give up because it is too tough to do. They try to see how it can be done and start doing it. They may make mistakes, they may fail initially but they persist and...

Well, almost all learning that we do is empirical learning. Barring a very few geniuses, all of us learn by trial and error. We do something, learn from our mistakes, repeat the effort with the modifications wrought by such learning, and so on till we succeed. And the 'manual' that we create forms the template for the future. So, those who take on these hard jobs and persist, eventually develop the expertise to successfully complete those jobs. Like an Edison who persisted till he successfully made the electric bulb, they end up being lauded for their success.

To encounter a job and to give up considering the difficulties in the way of completing is the mark of the ordinary. Be it individuals, companies, societies or nations, success seldom crowns those who can list out all the reasons why projects are not doable. It is those who start off on it, fail to the chorus of all the others chanting 'I told you so', refine their efforts for the next attempt and so on...it is those who are lauded. Yes, there may be the lucky ones who find the solution at the first attempt. There may be the unlucky ones whose attempts are not crowned by success either because they run out of funds or because they fail to find the right way through or someone else beats them to the solution. But it IS from those who try that you get your successful people, not from those who give up.

Alas! Even Tiru is no use in finding me a way to success by lazing around!