[logicallee]

>No-one realistically sets out to create "a Google"

but lots of people unrealistically set out to create "a Google" and some of them succeed. Who never would have if they had had a realistic goal.

my goals are completely unrealistic. most people with such goals fail completely.

[petewailes]

Even if you succeed, that's anecdotal. Telling others to do the same wouldn't be good advice, in the same way as a lottery winner telling others to play wouldn't.

[logicallee]

If one in ten thousand people who set out to create a billion dollars of value for society and themselves succeed, and the others fail but use the skills they learned to lead gainfully employed, happy lives, why is that not good advice? Society nets a billion dollars, and the expected return is let's say 1b/10k = $100k, though the distribution of outcomes is skewed. So why not? What's the objection?