Obliquity - a definition

This 1998 Financial Times article by John Kay is the first time I think the principle of "Obliquity" gets explicitly defined.

Obliquity is the idea that if you aim for something (usually self-interested like profit or happiness) you'll miss. But if you aim for something else, more "nobler", outside yourself, you'll get the first thing thrown in too. So, aim to be happy, and you'll likely end up dissatisfied. But aim to love others and seek their good - and you'll find happiness too. This article quotes John Stuart Mill:

“Those only are happy who have their minds tried on some object other than their own happiness – on the happiness of others, on the improvement of mankind, even on some art or pursuit, followed not as a means, but as itself an ideal end. Aiming thus at something else, they find happiness by the way.”

The principle also applies to profits. The article quotes "Built to Last" by Collins and Porras, where the most successful companies in their paired study were not the ones who pursued profit solely. Rather: “They have tended to pursue a cluster of objectives, of which making money is only one – and not necessarily the primary one”. (page 55)