Look before you leap
We understand that if anybody wants to perform anything by making a leap, he should ponder well before actually making it. We may imagine a situation in which there is a chasm on the road that a traveller wants to cross by making a leap. Just after making the leap and covering half the distance, he finds it impossible to reach the other side. So he falls into the chasm and his attempt ends in failure. If he had carefully looked at the distance to be covered, the momentum required for the leap to cover that distance, the measure of energy needed for the attempt and made his leap in accordance with his calculation before already having made the leap his attempt would have brought him success. What he should have done is to have calculated the extent of achievement he wanted to make by the leap before he actually made it. If he had done this he would not have fallen into the chasm, or would not have leapt at all in case he had found it impossible to cross the chasm by means of the leap. This literal significance of the adage is quite true in respect of every deed that we need to perform in our day to day life. Before undertaking the work we should consider its pros and cons, devise the ways and means to perform it and then proceed to carry it out. But if we start doing the work without exercising adequate consideration about the pros and cons as well as the processes and begin to think about all this during the course of execution then chances will be more of failure than of success, like the traveller who falls into the chasm during the course of the leap made without prior consideration.