“The great thing in life is not in realizing a purpose, but in fighting for it. If we feel the possibilities of a great work looming large before us and impelling us to action it is our duty to consecrate ourselves to it. Failure in a great work is nobler than success in a petty one that is beneath our maximum of possibility. We have nothing to do with results - they do not belong to us anyway. It is our duty to do our best bravely and then to rest in the comfort of this fact alone.” 

William George Jordan speaks wisely about an approach to life that both drives one to greatness and forgives the inevitable failures along the way. 

This is how design thinkers approach business; focusing on the immediate effort, guided by a larger purpose that defies clarification: 

“We are going to develop a way to help diabetics ‘feel’ with their feet that have lost all nerve endings.” 

“We are going to use whatever we have lying around in this lunar module to scrub the CO2 out of the air.” 

“We are going to find a way to convince people to stop dumping plastic in the ocean.” 

The point is not how it’s going to get done, the point is that we’re going to figure it out together. We will fail along the way - that’s a guarantee. In fact that’s the whole point because each time we do, we get closer to the end result.

Focusing on immediate results will suck the life out of your work and your life, because the only time you “succeed” is when your goal is too small.  

Focusing on the joy of pursuing a goal worthy of your inherent greatness - that’s a life worth living. And that’s a business worth building.