The Golden Goose, Rewritten
The story feels familiar:
A humble farmer discovers a goose that lays a golden egg every day.
One flawless miracle at a time — enough to change everything.
At first, he marvels at this gift.
He wakes with wonder. He dreams a little bigger.
He plans carefully.
But wonder soon turns to wanting.
Patience collapses into impatience.
He doesn’t want enough — he wants everything. Now.
He kills the goose, desperate to unlock all the gold at once.
Instead, he finds nothing.
The fortune, the future, the unfolding possibility — gone.
Most tell it as a fable about greed.
Cute.
Simple.
Also… shallow.
But if we stop there, we miss the deeper, sharper truth.
The farmer’s fatal flaw wasn’t greed.
It was a failure to understand how systems create lasting value.
The Deeper Cut We Miss
He didn’t just kill the goose.
He killed the process.
He killed the leverage.
He thought he had an object.
He had a system.
And systems?
They don’t reward speed.
They reward stewardship.
He misunderstood the game.
The goose wasn’t the prize — it was the system.
The value wasn’t a payout — it was a relationship with time.
The miracle wasn’t the egg — it was the engine that produced it, over and over.
The goose was leverage.
Living, breathing, leverage.
When you misunderstand systems, you don’t just lose rewards.
You lose the future you were building.
The Alternate Ending
Now picture this, the farmer realizes:
“This is a relationship, not a lottery ticket.
My job is to protect the process, not plunder the prize.”
So he plays a different game.
He builds the perfect habitat.
He studies what keeps the system alive.
He invests. He improves. He expands.
Maybe he creates a whole sanctuary.
Maybe he mentors others in stewardship.
Maybe he designs systems that keep thriving without him.
He doesn’t just get richer.
He builds a future that can’t be stolen, drained, or killed overnight.
Because he understands:
Sustained success isn’t flashy.
It’s feral. Fragile. Fierce.
It belongs to those who protect the source.
Over time, he doesn’t just accumulate wealth —
He becomes a steward of a living system.
A new future unfolds — resilient, abundant, self-renewing.
How This Plays Out in Our Life
Our golden goose?
Our energy.
Our habits.
Our disciplines.
Our creative engines.
Our systems for growth.
Our ability to build things that matter.
Every time we burn out from sprinting…
Every time we celebrate one win and let the discipline die…
Every time we think, “I’ll fix it later” while squeezing our own momentum dry…
We kill the goose.
And we call it “normal.”
Burnout isn’t normal.
Losing momentum isn’t inevitable.
They’re consequences of broken stewardship.
The ones who keep building?
They aren’t tougher. They’re smarter.
They protect their leverage.
They optimize the engine, not just chase the output.
They steward momentum, not steal from it.
How This Plays Out in Business
In companies, the bodies pile up faster:
That product-market fit? Abandoned for vanity pivots.
That A-team? Burned out, underpaid, and out the door.
That loyal customer base? Sold out for a quarterly bonus.
Success isn’t a prize we hold once.
It’s a living system we manage daily.
When leaders squeeze instead of sustaining, when they gamble trust for short-term dopamine hits…
They kill the system.
Then they act shocked when it collapses.
Newsflash:
Success didn’t betray them.
They betrayed success.
The Real, Infinite Game
If you want to win, protect the process.
Protect the rhythm that creates results.
Protect the system that compounds.
Protect the conditions that sustain momentum.
Because success isn’t a spigot we control.
It’s a fragile ecology.
A rhythm we must honor.
A future we have to earn.
We don’t just have to survive failure.
We have to survive success — and that’s way harder.
Micro-Challenge
This is where I ask myself:
Where am I draining my best leverage?
What habit, team, or system needs stronger protection today?
Then I make one upgrade.
I guard one goose.
It’s not about doing more.
It’s about protecting what matters — relentlessly, ruthlessly.
Here’s to your Goose 📈
