Victory for the Aimless

摘要: There’s a common assumption that you can achieve anything if you put your mind to it. So it’s no surprise that our culture stresses driving full speed towards our goals, whether in starting a business, pursuing a career, or even in choosing hobbies or mates. The accepted wisdom is that it’s wasteful to meander through life without a consistent direction. But it turns out that many great achievers discovered their true potential only after letting go of their original objectives. Whether they’re rock stars, authors, or millionaires, a unifying trend behind the success of many outliers is a willingness to follow serendipity. And while sometimes things work out exactly the way we intended, the great successes don’t usually follow any predictable script. It turns out there’s no magical formula for changing the world. This chapter shares the stories of real people who found great success through abandoning objectives.