"Do or don't do, there is no try." Agree or disagree?

I’m thinking of a time when it could be incorrect.

At work if the boss asked you to do something, and you tried to do it but couldn’t (for whatever reason), it would be inaccurate for the boss to say “you didn’t do it.” A defense could and would be “I tried to do it but _________________.” Yes, it wasn’t done in the end but the attempt was made.

The quote is intended to be about committing yourself fully to something. I’ve seen this quote a lot in the “hustle” circle like entrepreneurship or things like that. Personally, I think trying can be a good thing in some situations. Maybe you need to test the water before you can be sure your investment is a good choice. There is always risk in big things and you have to make sure to minimize the risk before jumping in onto your big investment.

My own needs to be perfect before doing something has left me unwilling to try many things that I might have enjoyed. I think it’s a crap quote and people should be encouraged to try things and potentially fail more.

I suppose it could mean that if you’re going to do something, do it with your whole heart but even that isn’t always applicable.

There is a common saying in recovery, “trying’s lying”.

Someone may try something new, but when they say “I am trying to…” it means they aren’t.

We tend to learn more from our failures than we do from our successes!!!

@Mimishu1995 Yeah, my association of this quote with sleazy Silicon Valley startup moguls like Elizabeth Holmes causes me to recoil a bit when I hear it (though I do think it is valid advice in many situations).

Depends. For example, I really really tried to get a screw out of the wall, but it just would not come out. So I tried, but was unable to attain my goal.

Years ago when I first heard it I instinctively thought it was correct and made sense. After thinking about it I’ve decided it’s pure bullshit. There are many things I can attempt and not accomplish; that doesn’t mean I haven’t made an honest attempt. And if I do manage to accomplish something, does that mean I didn’t try to before the accomplishing? I think it’s a quote that makes people feel badly, feel like failures.

The quote implies that there is no middle ground in an endeavor. Yoda’s full of shit.

There are many things I can attempt and not accomplish; that doesn’t mean I haven’t made an honest attempt… but you still didn’t do it. You may have tried very hard, but still you did not do it.

George Mallory attempted to climb Mt Everest in 1924. He tried, but failed 800 feet from the summit. But he did not climb Everest.

@zenvelo When you said “Tryin’s lyin’” regarding recovery, I’m assuming you’re speaking of AA. That’s exactly the kind of pat answer AA-speak that causes many failures in AA.

So if we stop someone in the middle of hammering a nail, is he trying to hammer it? We don’t know if he will be successful or not, so what’s he doing?

We could say he’s ‘in the process’, couldn’t we? or even ‘attempting to’. And ‘attempting to’ is simply another way of saying ‘trying’.

Therefore, there is such a thing as ‘trying’.

I feel like this should be in Meta.

I disagree with “tryin’s lying.”
It may be true of some people in some issues, but I have seen for myself that the more someone tries to quit smoking or other forms of tobacco, they get that much closer to quitting altogether.

@KRD: Meta is for questions relating to Fluther itself, and members of Fluther (members who may be absent for a long time, or deceased).

@chyna is right!!! I spent 15 years TRYING to quit smoking but failed miserably. Then after 15 years, I looked at myself in the mirror & said “WHY you lying to yourself???” I quit smoking cold turkey that day & it has been 23 years since I had that heart-to-heart with myself & it was well worth it!!!

Sometimes you just have to try to succeed!!!

It’s a one dimensional sound bite that sounds motivational but is really just another way to diminish someone else’s efforts. Sorry, @zenvelo, but your little aphorism is just bullshit. Maybe in a very specific context that requires absolutes, fine, but even recovery is not such a context. If you are in recovery and have never lapsed, well, goody for you, but the majority have.

In so very very many contexts, the journey is the lion’s share of the accomplishment.

I don’t agree with the quote as everything begins with an attempt whether it leads to success or failure. It might be applicable in some life or death situations but ordinary life doesn’t have to be so serious.

Not trying is the bigger problem.

NOT trying is giving up!!!

Disagree.

@chyna…find something to pull on the screw, put reverse pressure on it at the same time you’re backing it out.

Trying is intimately related to doing. Sometimes you succeed in doing only after trying different things. And sometimes you just have to stop trying, and sometimes you can apply what you learned from your failures to the next thing you try to do.

I will do my best.

I disagree with Yoda. He after all is one fantasy created in another.

I disagree.

To do something more than merely exist, one has to try.
As has been said above, many have tried to do something but haven’t.

The quote implies that there are only two types of people: the omnipotent and the totally lazy.

Simplistic and bogus.

@Brian1946 I totally agree with you.

This is why @Demosthenes and I recoil at that quote being used in the hustle circle. It basically guilt-trips people into working to the death and taking dangerous risk. And it sets people up for huge disappointment and bankruptcy.

“Without try, we would have no enlightenment!” No science, no discovery, no advancement.