Applying the 0% Chance Mindset
A practical case from a reader
The 0% Chance Mindset is more than a radical concept - it can be a practical compass for navigating our way out of the Cult of Achievement.
We all carry our list of "0% Chance" tasks - ambitions we’ve shelved because we convinced ourselves that the odds of success are near zero. For me, one of those is learning a musical instrument. I’ve always wanted to play well enough to perform for and with friends, yet my own perception of my potential is near zero.
Usually that would be the end of the story. But using the Fail on Purpose methodology, I realised the "downside" is negligible - just a bit of time and the cost of the lessons and instrument. The upside, however, can be joyously transformative:
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Inoculation: If I fail, it becomes a pre-emptive rewiring mechanism. Because I expect to fail, the pressure evaporates. The attempt becomes playful, the effort feels light, and the mind stays calm. I can actually have fun in the process of failing.
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Momentum: If I somehow succeed, I haven’t just opened a portal to a new world of joy; I have shattered my own conditioned beliefs. That success empowers me to step off the tracks and embrace even larger "0% chance" challenges in the future.
The journey to living on purpose begins the moment we choose to embrace failure.
Fail on Purpose
The 0% Chance Mindset
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"Fail on Purpose is not your typical self-help book. It doesn’t prescribe a 5-step plan for “winning”, or tired advice about "bouncing back", which mistakenly treats failure as a mere unfortunate pit stop on the road to success."
Foreword
A friend, always.
I was standing in Park Güell, Barcelona, when Uantchern texted me a draft of this book. Park Güell was the perfect backdrop to reflect on failure. Park Güell was developed over a century ago by Eusebi Güell, one of the richest men in Spain at that time, as an elite residential estate - 60 plots for the ultra-rich to build stately homes in a fantastical garden compound. The architect was none other than the legendary Antoni Gaudí.
But it turned out to be an unmitigated commercial failure. Only 2 plots of land were ever sold – one to Güell’s lawyer, and the other to Gaudi himself.
Yet today, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, drawing millions of visitors each year who marvel at its beauty. Had it been a commercial success a century ago, would it be an icon today? Possibly not. My takeaway that afternoon was - failure is not an absolute, its definition shifts as the world changes.
The Weight of Performance
If you picked up this book, you are likely exhausted. Not the kind of tired that a vacation can fix, but a soul-deep fatigue born from living life as a permanent performance. Somewhere along the way, we all signed an unspoken contract with the Cult of Achievement: that our worth is inseparable from our output.
Success stopped being a direction and became a demand, morphing into a form of survival. We began to wear our achievements as a heavy identity armour. And the great tragedy of this system is that any failure, even if it is ultimately harmless, can become a catastrophic threat to our identity. We were taught to fear dropping the ball more than anything else. For anyone who has ever felt the tightening shame of a mistake or the paralysing pressure of needing to get everything right, this book is your alternative doorway.
A Radical Rewiring
Fail on Purpose is not your typical self-help book. It doesn’t prescribe a 5-step plan for “winning”, or tired advice about "bouncing back", which mistakenly treats failure as a mere unfortunate pit stop on the road to success.
Instead, it attacks the root cause: the fear reaction around failure, which requires a pre-emptive rewiring mechanism. The revolutionary core of this work lies in the 0% Chance Mindset: the radical practice of deliberately failing at tasks that are literally impossible. This practice helps you unlearn the conditioned belief that failure is dangerous, detach our drive from our self-worth, and reclaim your freedom, creativity and intuition.
The Man Behind the Idea
I have known Uantchern for two-thirds of my life. We were university classmates, student leaders, and colleagues at a Big 4 accounting firm. He has lived many lives: IT auditor, consultant, civil servant, CEO, shareholder advocate, mountaineer, and now, an author. In every reincarnation, he has been fearless. He has his share of battle scars, but he consistently steps up with the 0% Chance Mindset. He has lived what he is now preaching.
Your Invitation
Fail on Purpose is not an invitation to surrender your ambition; it is an act of courageous resistance to the fear that poisons it. Failure is not a verdict; it is an experience.
If you are ready to shed your identity armour and stop chasing success as a form of safety, step off the treadmill and into these pages. Your journey to living on purpose begins the moment you choose to fail on purpose.