Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned: The Myth of the Objective

To arrive somewhere remarkable we must be willing to hold many paths open without knowing where they might lead.

Almost no prerequisite to any major invention was invented with that invention in mind.

Being open and flexible to opportunity is sometimes more important than knowing what you’re trying to do.

Objectives are well and good when they are sufficiently modest, but things get a lot more complicated when they’re more ambitious. In fact, objectives actually become obstacles towards more exciting achievements, like those involving discovery, creativity, invention, or innovation—or even achieving true happiness. In other words (and here is the pa... See more

Sometimes the best way to achieve something great is to stop trying to achieve a particular great thing. In other words, greatness is possible if you are willing to stop demanding what that greatness should be.

The process of setting an objective, attempting to achieve it, and measuring progress along the way has become the primary route to achievement in our culture.