Josh Kaufman

Josh Kaufman is the bestselling author of books on business, entrepreneurship, skill acquisition, productivity, creativity, applied psychology, and practical wisdom. About Josh »

3 Ways to Think About Winning

There are three ways to “win" a marathon:

When you start running, finishing a marathon is a great goal. Accomplishing that goal is a legitimate victory.

Once you know you can do it, getting better is the obvious next step. Every time you beat your previous time, you declare victory.

At a certain point, you face a decision: is becoming #1 the goal, or are you running for some other reason? If competition becomes the focus, coming in second is a failure, even if you set a personal record. No one competes in the Olympics hoping to win a silver medal.


Let’s extend the metaphor into other areas. Take business. “Winning" at business could look like:

These are three very different goals. Accomplishing each of them, in their own way, represents a very real victory for the people pursuing them.


Let’s examine this breakdown in more general terms:

Capacity, growth, mastery. Here’s what that looks like in practical terms:

Again, all are legitimate goals, but each end result calls for different strategies to accomplish the objective.


Here’s the common failure mode in this line of thinking: choosing one of these objectives for yourself, then forgetting that other valid objectives exist, assuming other accomplishments “don’t count."


Here’s how to avoid these failure modes:


Be clear about what you’re trying to do, then do it. Judge the success of your efforts by whether or not they help you achieve the desired objective.

Ignore everything else.

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