Failure Tip 3: Make sure your success is up to someone else

To increase your chances of failure make the whole of your outcome, or at least critical parts of it, someone else’s responsibility.

For example: Put your investment hopes in a lottery ticket and let the machine decide whether you succeed or not. Or rely on someone you don’t know, and have never met, to be there just at the right time to help you out. Make sure that if they don’t show up your outcome will collapse in ruins.

Okay, I’m exaggerating a little. Do you have (any) control over the outcome? Can you start it and keep it going, or is that in the hands of others?

Does this mean that you have to be completely self reliant and do everything yourself? Not necessarily. Unless you are Robinson Crusoe most outcomes are going to involve other people in some way. You need to be able to influence and motivate people to take their part in your outcomes. As they will be trying to get you to participate in theirs. You can’t guarantee they’ll go along with you, but you can work on how influential and motivating you can be. Your approach is in your hands, their response is theirs.

Try this

Think of anything you want to achieve. Who else is involved? How can you influence and motivate them to assist you? Getting people to help you might be an outcome in its own right.