The Oblique Path to Achievement:💰📖🛣️

Published: Tue, 02/04/25

Updated: Tue, 02/04/25

The most valuable destinations are rarely reached by following someone else's map.

Catherine Pulsifer

We love the myth of the straight road. The idea is that success is a simple equation—set a goal, work hard, and get results. We admire those who seem to have followed a direct path as if they knew exactly what they wanted from the start and marched toward it without distraction. No matter what your told, no matter what is implied by marketers who want to sell you something. No one gets anywhere meaningful by walking in a straight line.

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The path to success is to take massive, determined action.

Achievement—real, lasting, fulfilling achievement—is never direct. It is oblique, unpredictable, and full of detours. The path winds, loops back, and often forces you through doors you never planned to enter. If you think success is about finding the shortest route from point A to point B, you’ll spend most of your life frustrated and lost.

🌟 Afrofuturist Fashion Design Challenge: Weave the Future! 🌟

Step into the world of tomorrow and redefine the boundaries of style and tradition with our Afrofuturist Fashion Design Challenge. This contest calls all visionary designers, artists, and dreamers to merge the rich tapestry of traditional African fashions with the possibilities of futuristic materials and technology.

Challenge Details: Design a piece of clothing or a full outfit that reflects the spirit of Afrofuturism. Your creation should honor traditional African design aesthetics while integrating advanced materials, smart fabrics, or technology that could change the way we think about clothing.

How to Enter:

Design Concept: Create a sketch or digital artwork of your fashion design. Your submission can be a detailed drawing, a digital rendering, or even a 3D model.
Description: Accompany your design with a 200-word description explaining the inspiration drawn from African traditions and the futuristic elements you've incorporated.
Materials and Technology: Specify the types of materials and technological enhancements used in your design. For example, self-heating fabrics, LED decorations, or solar-powered accessories.

Judging Criteria:

Creativity and Originality: How innovative and unique is your design?
Integration of Cultural and Futuristic Elements: How well do you blend traditional African aesthetics with futuristic concepts?
Visual Impact: How striking and artistically compelling is your submission?
Explanation Clarity: How well do you communicate the concept and functionality of the design?

Prizes:

🥇 First Place: Your character will be featured in an upcoming story in our newsletter, plus receive a $50 Amazon gift card.
🥈 Second Place: Your character will be featured in our newsletter and receive a $25 Amazon gift card.
🥉 Third Place: Your character will be mentioned in our newsletter and receive a $10 Amazon gift card.

Submit Your Designs: Email your hero's description and any optional sketches to Marksmanstudios1@gmail.com. Please format your entry with your contact details and the title "Afrofuturist Fashion Design Challenge!"

Submission Deadline: Be sure to submit your submissions by 3rd March 2025.

Where you imagined point ‘B’ exists is an empty, desolate place.
I used to think writing was my direct path. I thought I’d arrive at my destination if I just wrote enough, worked hard enough, and followed the blueprint of other successful authors.

Not so.

What I didn’t realise was that every breakthrough in my writing life came from something that, at the time, seemed unrelated.

A random conversation. A book outside my usual interests. A mistake that forced me to rethink my approach. The best lessons didn’t come from moving forward—they came from unexpected angles.

That’s because achievement isn’t about bulldozing forward. It’s about positioning yourself for discovery. It’s about embracing the detours, absorbing unexpected lessons, and understanding that progress often happens sideways before it moves forward.

The Myth of the Linear Path

Society teaches us to think in straight lines. Do well in school, attend university, get a good job, climb the career ladder, and retire comfortably. It’s a nice story.

Too bad it doesn’t work like that.

Life is messy. You might start down one road and realise it leads nowhere. You might pour years into something that turns out to be a dead end—only to find that the skills, knowledge, and resilience you built along the way suddenly unlock an entirely different opportunity.

The direct route to success doesn’t exist because you don’t fully know what success looks like until you get close to it. When you start out, your vision is incomplete. You think you know what you want, but what you wish to evolve as you do. The journey itself reshapes your destination.

The Power of Indirect Effort

Most of the breakthroughs in history have come from oblique paths—solutions that emerged from unexpected angles. Think about how penicillin was discovered. Alexander Fleming wasn’t trying to revolutionise medicine; he was just a scientist curious about a mould growing in his petri dish.

In his book Obliquity, economist John Kay argues that the greatest successes are achieved indirectly. The best businesses don’t become great by chasing profits alone—they become great by focusing on quality, innovation, or customer experience, and profits follow. The happiest people don’t find joy by relentlessly pursuing happiness—they see it through meaningful work, relationships, and experiences, and happiness emerges as a byproduct.

You don’t build a fulfilling life by obsessing over success. You build it by following your curiosity, developing skills, and allowing opportunities to emerge from the unexpected intersections of your experiences.

The Detours That Define You

If you feel stuck or uncertain, that’s not a sign of failure. It’s a sign that you’re exactly where you need to be. Success doesn’t come from moving faster in a straight line. It comes from staying engaged with the process long enough to see connections others miss.

That means allowing yourself to explore without constantly worrying about efficiency. Read widely. Try things that seem unrelated to your main goal. Have conversations that don’t appear immediately useful. Some of the most transformative moments in your life will come from things you initially dismissed as distractions.

Looking back, I see that my biggest leaps didn’t come from doubling down on my plan. They came from stepping outside of it. The books that influenced me most weren’t the ones I set out to read. The people who changed my perspective weren’t the ones I thought I needed to meet. The skills that propelled me forward weren’t always the ones I set out to master.

If you’re obsessed with moving forward, you might miss the door that was slightly to your left—the one leading to something greater than you imagined.

Stop Trying to Be Efficient

Efficiency has its place. However, efficiency is overrated when it comes to meaningful work and personal growth. The most successful people aren’t just focused on racing to the finish line. They’re the ones who stay open, adapt, and allow themselves to be shaped by the journey.

Perfection doesn’t exist.

Instead, cultivate depth. Build skills. Follow your curiosity. Allow your goals to shift as you gather more information. And trust that the indirect path—the one full of detours and side quests—is the one that will take you exactly where you need to go.

In the end, success isn’t about finding the shortest path. It’s about walking the one that teaches you what success truly means.

Now get walking, Gentle Reader.

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Peace, love and power.