A few lines earlier, the same chapter has the famous line about a journey of a thousand li starting with a single step, and since a li is only about a third of a mile, that journey is shorter than it sounds. This part gets quoted far less, and it's the sharper one: things get ruined on the eve of success. It's the last coat of paint that gets rushed, and the fourth bedtime story that gets read on autopilot. This morning, find the thing you're nearly finished with, and give its last part the care you gave its first.
(But) people in their conduct of affairs are constantly ruining them when they are on the eve of success. If they were careful at the end, as (they should be) at the beginning, they would not so ruin them.
Tao Te Ching, ch. 64 (trans. James Legge)