Here’s an update to an old post, because it ties in very nicely with current conversatons that tend to veer at this time of year towards, ‘Reflection.’ The category of purpose, of knowing what matters, of undersanding ourselves, of taking time to suss it all and see what we want to do… next. This is something that many, many people have come through the Design Kompany offices, home-based or otherwise, and conversation parties, friend circles and business-friend conversation meetups, to talk, talk together about, and discover our way towards something we feel has value to… us. Personally, individually, not necessarily aggreeing on it all but knowing we all have to find our way to the ‘it’ that we discover when we feel it, we know it exists when we say, ‘Yeah!’
According to Maya Angelou, ‘Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.’
I’m watching a gigantic dramedy these days. Set in New York, it is taking me back to a short time in my life when I lived in Brooklyn and thought I was going to be like one of the people in the story. Yet, I left for the same reason I am seeing this drama playing out: power struggles. Money, fame: people chased these. I could see it then and I was still very young. For me, I wanted to find something else. Money was important, but not the most important. Fame was not a goal. Personal satisfaction: yes. Knowing myself, and knowing what I like.
From Lifehack:
The main reason why external measures of success are flawed is that they were created by someone else. So faring our achievements against these artificial standards means that we evaluate ourselves against a bar which someone else created for us…
‘One very important thing to grasp is that being successful doesn’t always have to be measured in tangible terms, especially not the ones created by others. That is—make your own standards if you don’t want to be stuck in a perpetual “why-others-have-more” spinning wheel.
You will know if you’ve “made it” if:
- You love your life in general. You have a purpose and what you do is meaningful to you.
- You are proud of yourself for what you have accomplished so far.
- You do something bigger than you. You touch others’ lives and make them better.
- You have people who care about you (and you care about) with whom you share your achievements. You don’t have to advertise your victories to the whole world—just to those who will be really able to share your joy and appreciate your hard work.
- You see progress. You are not stuck in the status quo, you are evolving and improving.
A Wikihow post said, ‘If you never take risks, you will always be settling and living with regret.’
Something I found after that, ‘Nothing changes if nothing changes.’
One of my favorite standby quotes, ‘If you don’t like something, change it. You are not a tree.’
Then there’s GBS… People are always blaming their circumstances…
Updated: November 2025