[eloisant]

Sometimes to do something great, you need to give up your failed project to start over with something that have a chance to work.

[etothepii]

Apologies, I was referring to the specific thing one is doing (and giving up on) as a node below the "do something great" headline.

That is you don't give up on the overarching objective "do something great" because you have realised that the something you are doing is not helping you achieve that headline goal.