You can be sure this same rule works in both public and private life: simple projects that you can handle go exactly as you want them to. But huge projects that are too big for you? Those are hard to even start. And once you do take them on, they slow you down and crush you. Just when you think you're about to succeed, they fall apart and drag you down with them. This is why people so often fail when they don't stick to easy tasks, even though they wish the tasks they choose were easy.
Be assured that the same rule applies both to public and private life: simple and manageable undertakings proceed according to the pleasure of the person in charge of them, but enormous ones, beyond his capacity to manage, are not easily undertaken. When he has got them to administer, they hinder him, and press hard upon him, and just as he thinks that success is within his grasp, they collapse, and carry him with them: thus it comes about that a man’s wishes are often disappointed if he does not apply himself to easy tasks, yet wishes that the tasks which he undertakes may be easy.