If you play a game of chess well, with the right position, there is more than one way for you to win. If you play a game poorly, your options are few—there is only one way, perhaps even a miracle, for you to win.

For any goal you have, it’s worth considering how many paths you know you can take to achieve it.

For example, if your goal is to become a recording artist, and you’ve only identified one path to success—to sign a contract with a major record label—then you will close your mind off to the other paths because they are failures.

Relying on one path is fragile. If it doesn’t work, then you are in trouble. But with many paths and options, you can pivot as you need—or combine them together. The key is to find the paths and know your options. It helps to ask other people and keep an open mind. As Shane Parrish writes in Clear Thinking, “You don’t need to be smarter than others to outperform them if you can out-position them.”

A related question: what can you get even if your first way to win doesn’t work?

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