In the movie Lions for Lambs, Robert Redford’s character asks his professor a poignant question:

“Is there any difference in trying but failing, and simply failing to try—if you end up in the same place anyway?”

Of course there is. 

If you try to do something, you at least have a chance at succeeding, however small it may be. 

But if you don’t try because you’re too scared of failing… Then you’ve already failed. In that scenario, you’ve guaranteed your failure. You’ve taken possibility and luck out of the equation.

If everyone adopted that nihilistic attitude, then nothing would ever happen. Our lives, businesses, relationships—literally everything—would come to a screeching halt. We’d be living in entropy, slowly withering away to nothing. 

Our lives are built on failure. The striving for worthwhile goals is what helps us grow, not the achievement of those goals. 

So if you have a choice between trying and failing, or not trying because you’ll end up in the same place either way, make the choice to try.