“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas Edison

“You gotta act. And you’ve gotta be willing to fail, you gotta be ready to crash and burn, with people on the phone, with starting a company, with whatever. If you’re afraid of failing, you won’t get very far.” – Steve Jobs

Every one of the above-quoted contributors is overwhelmingly considered successful. Whether it be sports, technology or some other field, there is a strongly defined definition of success and failure. The difference is simply this:

If you never try, you will always fail.

It doesn’t matter what you are trying for. Maybe its to get a high paying job. Perhaps its to write a book or innovate at something you believe will change the world (hopefully for the good of all). If you never try, you will always fail.

Put it another way; if you just sit back and dream and never try, you are being selfish. A dream is just a goal without a deadline. You will keep that dream to your self and never share it. Now, doesn’t that sound selfish? If you reach just one other person out of a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand, etc…. all the way up until the number of souls in the universe… Just one person? Well, that is still light years above reaching no one.

You owe it to your fellow souls to at least try. If you fail, you are still successful because at least you tried. The world is full of people that haven’t tried. Don’t be one of those people.