Learning to walk: Spend time on deals with high likelihood to close

As an entrepreneur -- and now as an investor, I've been reminded lately about filtering one's deals with a heavy emphasis on likelihood to close.  Why?  We all have big deals that might move our company and fund(s) into the neon lights of prime time -- but I've learned that sometimes taking a bunch of baby steps helps build momentum to actually being able to walk toward the big deals. If you start out to walk right away, the likelihood that you'll fall or take longer to learn to walk is higher. In other words, focusing on likelihood to close as an important screening mechanism prevents you from wasting time and ensures that you're moving forward even if it's not as fast you'd like (it never is - is it? )