Focus on your dreams and pursue them boldly, with purpose. However, make no mistake that these are YOUR dreams, don’t expect anyone else to help you achieve them. Work as hard as you can and do your best for as long as it takes… EVERY SINGLE TIME. Indeed, it is a common delusion—and our Western cultures are particularly prone to this misconception—that one’s achievements in life are accurately depicted by towering stacks of past conquests and successes. Conflating ends and means often leads to severe conflicts of morals and does not go a long way in explaining why so many wealthy individuals spend lives embroiled in seething malcontent, while many people of insignificant means find the strength for happiness and optimism. For instance, when a person, possessing any modicum of moral fibre, fails to use their considerable financial power or political clout to stop an ongoing injustice, there is no refuge from the feeling of acrid shame that haunts them. The moral ball-and-chain becomes that much more oppressive if they have actively participated in accruing ill-begotten wealth. Numbers on a bank account can neither assuage the guilt nor mollify one’s shame, which cause a degenerative, visceral ‘allergy’ to mirrors.

The answer is simple: we do not need riches to become a noble king or queen. We need neither the approval nor the permission of others. What we crave are integrity and self-respect, for true contentment comes from within, not without. Ergo, one’s heart is light when one is confident in the knowledge of having given any project one’s full attention and effort and when, despite the mounting odds, one’s mind is pristine, void of vestiges of lurking shame or regret.

The project’s outcome depends on any number of external factors beyond your control, whereas the project’s execution… well, that’s all you. So whatever you do, approach your craft with an attitude that will make your future self beam with pride!