How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big

Systems > Goals

You pick a goal (“I want $1m”) and you feel like a failure until you reach it. Then when you get there, you’re happy for a minute and then empty. Cause there’s nothing left to strive for.

So you set another… And the cycle repeats.

Systems are different.

A system could be:

• “On weekends I do 2-3 hours a day of work on my own apps”
• “When I go grocery shopping, I don’t buy sweets”

You pick a system and you do it. Some goals and aspirations still probably exist in the back of your mind.

But when you focus on the activity there’s less of a roller coaster.

Manage energy / mental space

There’s only so much you can do. Eliminate distractions.

Everything you say “yes” to is a “no” to something else. Cliche, but true.

You can’t do meaningful stuff if you’re always busy doing bullshit.

How do you define a distraction? Anything that doesn’t get you closer to your “goals” (I know, I know, “goals”). Or that is not genuinely enjoyable.

I can’t stress the “genuinely enjoyable” part enough. I have friends who are “goal-oriented” and they’re always working. And they feel guilty if they don’t work or aren’t productive.

Do stuff you enjoy. Life is too short to be miserable.

And, yes, I’m aware you can enjoy work. I do too.

But you get the point. Look at what you’ve done this week.

Was it fun? Was it meaningful? Did it move the needle?

Skills stacking (if you don’t read anything else, read this)

It’s really damn hard to be the best at any one thing. And there’s always the risk that you picked the wrong thing.

A better approach is to be good at a few things. A few things that are related enough that they can complement each other. But different enough that they could, in theory, stand alone.

This is called a skill stack.

Example: Adams = okay artist + okay writer + okay business + okay tech = Dilbert success