Goals are for Losers

If someone asks me what my goal is, I always tell them I have none.

That does not mean I stopped being ambitious. At the same time, I am always where I wanted to be. I wanted to explain this better. And I thought it's best to share the parable of the Phantom City.

The Parable of the Phantom City

In Buddhism, the Parable of the Phantom City tells the story of a group of travelers crossing a long and difficult desert in search of a great treasure.

As the journey becomes exhausting, the travelers lose courage and want to turn back. Their wise guide, seeing their suffering, creates the illusion of a beautiful city where they can rest and regain their strength. After they have recovered, the guide explains that the city was only a temporary illusion meant to help them continue the journey, because the real treasure still lies ahead.

The story teaches that spiritual teachings and goals can sometimes function like that phantom city—helpful supports that encourage people to keep practicing when the path feels too difficult.

In a Mahayana interpretation of the Lotus Sutra, the lesson also points beyond the journey itself: what practitioners ultimately discover is not something newly gained at the end of the path, but the awakened nature already present within their own hearts.

The temporary goals and teachings help guide people forward until they realize that the treasure they were seeking has always been within them.

Identity drives me. Not goals.

I am an entrepreneur. Naturally, I desire to grow my businesses and live a happy life, supported by strong finances, good health, and relationships. And I'm happy with the family, health, and wealth I attained so far. How did I do it without having a goal? What drove me until today?

I notice other people often center their drive around goals; for me, it’s different. I understand that goals give people direction, daily focus, and a sense of progress. But by nature, I’m always thinking, acting, and focusing on just a few essential things—without explicit goals.

In the same way others use goals, I just do those things intuitively. On the flip side, I recall from my youth that I tended to set too many expectations when I fixated on goals and outcomes. That pressure dragged my creativity down and made it hard to maintain a sustainable, balanced effort. Too much focus on the end result often led me to burn out.

For people like me, that is the risk of being overly goal-oriented. Instead, I prefer to stay intentional about my desires, treating them more like solving a puzzle: What effort, what ideas, what actions make those dreams more probable? What moves the needle?

My actions become experiments driven by hypotheses, and each is an opportunity to learn. I’m not attached to hitting every goal; I win by evolving my approach, learning what works, and adjusting my hypotheses. That process is fun and feels true to who I am—it’s my identity.

I don’t believe that having goals is essential for everyone. What matters is aligning with an identity you’re proud of, then acting accordingly, sustaining your own version of forward motion and contentment. That’s my approach: Be curious, push forward, stay balanced, and find peace in the inner evolution.

After finding peace within, you'll need no more Phantom City.

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