Fleet MaullThe Entrepreneur’s Zen Master

What if success isn’t reaching the goal - but growing through the journey?

27 Dec 2025 · 1 min

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0:44

A short spoken excerpt (YouTube talk) arguing that the true purpose of setting and pursuing goals is the personal learning and growth gained during the effort — achieving the stated goal is a bonus. The speaker says adopting this growth-oriented orientation both preserves gains even if the goal isn’t reached and paradoxically increases the likelihood of reaching the goal.

Chapters

Here's the mistake all of us make lead, or many of us make. We think that the objective of setting a goal and working very hard to achieve it is achieving the goal that's wrong. Your objective of setting a goal and trying your level best to achieve the goal is the learning and growth that happen in you and to you as you try your level best to achieve the goal. If you actually achieve the goal, that's a bonus. Be immensely grateful if you don't achieve the goal. The learning and growth have already happened, so you're ahead of the game. But the funny thing is, when you adopt that orientation, the probability that you'll actually get to the goal you set for yourself increases and just doesn't increase, it increases dramatically.