Misaligned strategy.

You are dependent on or engaging with systems that don't lead to where you seek to go. They create the illusion that you are in-charge and you are buying into the illusion.

You are playing games you are not aware of or have little agency over. The games are rigged against you but leave you thinking that you have a chance.

You have not chosen the right audience or don't have practical empathy for the one you have chosen.

And finally, it doesn't get better over time. Effort today doesn't make tomorrow better.

These four pillars of strategy, systems, games, empathy and time, can help us see whether we have a strategy or not and what we can do to start having an effective one.

To find a better strategy, we need to be prepared to walk away from the one we’ve defaulted into.

~ Seth Godin, This Is Strategy