I think it’s easy to use “At least I tried” as an excuse to not really attempt to succeed. It seems counterintuitive, but sometimes people aren’t afraid of effort, but they’re afraid of sacrifice. So they do the former without the latter, enabling a sort of social validation of their inevitable – and predictable – failure.
If you’re going to try, make sure it’s because you really do want to succeed. If the cost is too high, that’s fine – not all juice is worth the squeeze. But then walk away.
The Opportunity Machine 