redefining success

Ted Hughes:

“And that’s how we measure out our real respect for people—by the degree of feeling they can register, the voltage of life they can carry and tolerate—and enjoy. End of sermon. As Buddha says: live like a might river. And as the old Greeks said: live as though all your ancestors were living again through you.”

To enjoy life, we might have to stop thinking about what we will never be able to read and watch and say and do, and start to think of how to enjoy the world within our boundaries. To live on a human scale. To focus on the few things we can do, rather than the millions of things we can’t. To not crave parallel lives. To find a smaller mathematics.

Optimize for legacy, not empire. Empires die because they’re alone, legacies live because they involve others.

-OH, on building teams and brand communities

Success, Adele said she eventually realized, is like a “personality...[you have to consider] the whole package.” Your album can sweep the Grammys, but if you were miserable, lonely, sad, angry, and bitter while making it—was it truly a success? And conversely, your movie can flop, but if you loved making it, loved writing it, loved being with it,

how many people you touched > how many people you reached