They’re all the same, because in each case you’re doing something and you get a benefit. Respectively: empowerment, knowledge, your goal.
Most of the parameters that determine your outcome you can’t control. Plus there’s the element of fortune, good or bad.
It doesn’t really matter how you start or where you end up – you always get some benefit and you’re never in control of the outcome.
In which case the only thing that doesn’t make sense, is never starting in the first place.