Scott Adams says to choose projects and habits that give you transferable skills or relationships that you can use in the future. If we break this down to determine the difference between goals and systems, we can ask ourselves, “What short-term goal can I achieve?” or “What persistent skills or relationships can I develop?” The second question leads to a system which allows us to fail in reaching some of our short term goals, but in the long-term, it adds value. 

why are we, “keeping track of how many times we’ve been rejected…[or] of how many times it didn’t work… [or] all the times someone has broken our heart or double crossed us or let us down”? What good does that do for us? Is it making us better? Most likely, it isn’t. It’s just causing you to focus on things that are generally negative. 

When asked about advice he’d give to someone, Matt Mullenweg thinks back to the early days of WordPress. Matt says they always used to think, “okay, if we do X today, what does that result in tomorrow, a year from now, or even ten years from now?”. He contrasted this to the metaphor of a dog chasing a car. What would the dog do if he actually catches the car? He doesn’t have a plan, all he can think of is getting to the car. Mullenweg says he finds this same thinking with entrepreneurs. He says, “[they] don’t plan for success”.  Therefore Mullenweg’s advice is, “don’t be a dog — think ‘what if’”.