"One thing led to another..."

The best things can seem to happen on accident

I read a lot. I also talk to a lot of people, and listen a lot. And when people talk about where they currently are, they often explain their current success with phrases like “one thing led to another and here we are” or “next thing you know, such and such amazing thing happened.”

It seems like successful people very often didn’t set out to do the thing they’re currently doing and loving. They didn’t have a goal to do such-and-such, and yet, that is exactly where they end up. And then that puts them in new neighborhoods to do to other things and have another series of “one thing led to another.”

Doesn’t this phenomenon defy all the recommendations to set goals and have a firm vision in mind? Maybe yes, maybe no. Here’s why I say no.

You can’t set a goal around something that may not yet exist or something you haven’t explored your way into yet. And you while you can certainly have a vision for your life, you can’t forecast everything that will get folded into it along the way.

This is…