To accomplish anything, whether it is big or small, nothing is achieved if it is never tried. Wayne Gretsky, an amazing Canadian hockey player, once said that, “you miss one hundred percent of the shots you don’t take.” This concept does not just apply to hockey, or merely sports for that matter. If there was never any attempts striving for greatness, then there would only be mediocrity. Yes, the first person most often fails, but he must rise up, dust himself off, and try again or he never will succeed. A politician can talk about what they will do for this country for hours, but when it comes to brass tacks of how they will do the job, they grow silent. It is not easy being the first to fix the problem, but without the first strike of the axe, the tree will never fall. In order to achieve greatness, people must first know failure.…show more content… People worry that when they fail, others will criticize and mock them to their very core. Well, Theodore Roosevelt said that, "It's not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit goes to the one who is actually in the arena." However, what is worse, someone doing his best and failing, or not trying at all? If people never tried, they will be left with regret for the things lost. Quitting is not an option, it is a choice. People like to take the easy way out. They do not like hard work, especially this generation. It has become a society of instant gratification, and with technology brings a sweeping downfall in productivity today. Teens nowadays pick something up, fail once and put it down 5 seconds later. Without trying, this generation will never learn long term gratification built upon failures leading them to