We do Steps 10, 11 and 12 not to attain a result, but for their own sake. To do any action in the hope of attaining anything, no matter how exalted or unselfish, is asking for trouble.

A desperate alcoholic heard in a New York bar of a guru who had found the secret of life. For the next fifteen years he searched the world for this guru, enduring miseries and privations without number. Hearing eventually that the guru was living at the top of one of the Himalaya peaks, he began to climb the mountain alone in a blizzard.

After three days, he peered through the snowstorm and saw -- indistinctly at first -- a guru sitting on a mat, wearing a loincloth, with a broad smile on his face.

"Are you the man who knows the secret of life?" gasped the desperate man.

"Yes, my son, I am," said the guru.

"Then you must tell it to me. I've come from the ends of the earth to find you. Tell me, tell me the secret of life!"

"The secret of life," said the guru, "is always to agree with the other person. Always agree with the other person. No matter what the other person may say, always agree with him. That's the secret of life."

The desperate man looked at him for a moment in disbelief and then said:

"What? You're telling me the secret of life is always to agree with the other person? I've endured fifteen years of miseries and privations to find you, you miserable old man, and now you tell me the secret of life is always to agree with the other person. That's the most ridiculous thing I ever heard! That's not the secret of life!"

The guru shrugged his shoulders and said:

"OK, it's not the secret of life."