Expect to have fun whether you succeed or not

Naval: A lot of people out there especially these self help gurus will say that we need to have a goal driven life and to write down your goals on your dream board or something like that. They say you have to struggle, make the effort, get out of bed, do your morning routine, get to work, and accomplish that goal so you can then climb the ladder to the next goal.

David: That sounds terribly dangerous. I don’t know who has it worse, the ones that fail or the ones that succeed. One should not just have goals that are interesting but bear in mind that you probably won’t succeed, so it should be something where you expect to have fun whether you succeed or not. Because if you don’t succeed then you will always be the failure that you hoped you wouldn’t be, and if you do succeed then you’ll find that it’s empty and that there’s no longer a problem to solve.

Conversation between Naval Ravikant and David Deutsch