There was a Greek general named Pyrrhus who was preparing to wage war against Italy in order to conquer it. He had a very wise advisor who was a philosopher named Kineas. Kineas said, "The Romans are said to be good soldiers. If heaven grants us victory over them, what use shall we make of that?"
Pyrrhus answered, "If we can conquer the Romans, there is no city, Greek or barbarian, that can resist us, and we shall take over all of Italy."
Kineas then asked, "O king, when we have taken Italy, what shall we do then?"
"From there, Sicily will be very easy to conquer."
"Will we be done after we control Sicily?"
"Oh, no," Pyrrhus said. "We will then be so close to Carthage and Libya that we might as well conquer them also."
Kineas then said, "We will then certainly be able to also conquer Macedonia and all of Greece, too. And after we have made all these conquests, what shall we do then?"
Pyrrhus laughing answered, "We will take our ease and enjoy drinking and having pleasant conversations with one another every day."
Kineas then asked, "But what prevents us from drinking and taking our ease now, since we already have the means to do so, instead of after so much blood-shed, and causing so much suffering for ourselves and others?"What Kineas was hoping to teach Pyrrhus was that the king already had enough wealth to do the very thing that he claimed was the goal of his campaign. Unfortunately, Kineas was unable to dissuade Pyrrhus from attacking Italy. Although his campaign to conquer Italy was successful, his army suffered severe losses and Pyrrhus is recorded to have said, "If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined." It is from this that we get the term "Pyrrhic victory," meaning a victory that was so costly it is almost the same thing as a defeat.
When I first heard this story it made me realize that we should question and review the stated goals for our actions. Sometimes we may find that we are engaging in some task which is not necessary and may even be damaging.
Source: Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans by Plutarch