Losing by Winning
The wrong finish line can feel like success—until you cross it.
Consider the tragedy of the Irish elk.
This prehistoric giant was the undisputed champion of growing antlers. They spanned twelve feet—a biological flex of epic proportions designed to intimidate rivals and woo mates.
But there was a catch. While those antlers were great for winning status contests, they were terrible for navigating dense forests. The Irish elk eventually couldn’t move without getting snagged.
They won the battle for impressive headgear, but they lost the war for survival. They were, quite literally, optimized for extinction.
We can be like the Irish elk. We can win spectacularly at games we were never meant to play. We can pour years of effort into paths that earn approval without ever stopping to ask whether they’re actually ours to walk.
Bob Goff notes that the real fear shouldn’t be failing at what matters, but “succeeding at things that don’t matter.”
To find that specific, God-given frequency we were meant to broadcast, we have to stop trying to capture every other signal.
Stop feeding the antlers that weigh you down. You were meant to run, not pose.
Great story!
Brilliant use of the Irish elk as a reality check on misplaced ambition. The idea that we can optimize ourselves into irrelevance is something I've seen play out in carrer planning alot, where people chase prestige over purpose. That line about succeeding at things that dont matter cuts deep because its so easy to mistake visibility for meaning.