I have always hated the motivational phrase "Shoot for the moon. If you miss you'll land among the stars."
We'll begin with the astronomical inaccuracy. Exactly how many stars are there between here and the moon? Exactly none. The only way you could miss the moon and end up near any stars would be to make a grave mathmatical error and overshoot the moon by at least 4.22 light years, the distance to Alpha Proxima, the closest star to our planet. That's roughly 24,807,219,601,427 miles. The distance between the moon and earth is only about 238,857 miles. The only people who do this sort of thing on a regular basis are (judging from their track record) NASA.
NASA does, among other things, rocket science. We have all heard the phrase "It's not rocket science here, people!" to indicate that a given task is hardly difficult. With the aforediscussed concept that NASA are the only ones who could manage to try to shoot for the moon and end up among the stars suggests that you must be versed in rocket science to accomplish the goal. Rocket science, as the adage tells us, is not an easy thing.
It is nearly impossible to accomplish the goal of the phrase. To do it, you have to screw up astronomically. I propose that there is a hidden meaning here. This is not a phrase of high aims or encouragement, but one of failure and malicious intent. In effect, the speaker says "Try it, just try it, you'll just fuck the whole thing up and end up a few billion miles out of the way." The speaker has no regard for the talents and abilities of the person the comment is directed towards, but assumes they will not suceed.
Be careful when you encourage people.