How results can hurt future results

It’s easy to worry about what happens if it doesn’t work. What about if it does?

Once we see results, what happens to work we did just because we thought it was right? When our intuition says to try something a certain way or to start in the first place, or when our conviction is stronger than the consensus, we do it just to do it.

Now imagine it works. Seems great, right? But the stakes go up. The focus switches — from doing it because the process is fun or experimental or worthwhile, to doing it because we want to see a result. Our gaze starts to wander past the process towards the result. But the result we saw at first was the byproduct of caring more about the process.

Success undeniably changes the work, sometimes in a way that runs counter to experiencing success again.

It’s easy to ask what might happen if something doesn’t work. But to preserve what made our work special in the first place, we should also start asking: What changes when it does?