I believe that a lot of our striving after the symbols and levers of success is due to a basic insecurity, a need to prove ourselves. That done, grown up at last, we are free to stop pretending.
Interpretation
The pursuit of success often stems from insecurity and the desire for validation, but true freedom comes from embracing our authentic selves.
In this quote, Charles Handy suggests that many people chase after success and external symbols due to an underlying insecurity or need for validation. He argues that once we acknowledge and accept ourselves, free from the need to prove our worth, we can find true freedom and authenticity, rather than continuing to pretend to be someone we are not in the pursuit of societal success.
In practice
In a motivational speech about personal growth and true success.
The companies that survive longest are the one's that work out what they uniquely can give to the world not just growth or money but their excellence, their respect for others, or their ability to make people happy. Some call those things a soul.
The first step is to measure whatever can easily be measured. This is OK as far as it goes. The second step is to disregard that which can't be easily measured or to give it an arbitrary quantitative value. This is artificial and misleading. The third step is to presume that what can't be measured easily really isn't important. This is blindness. The fourth step is to say that what can't be easily measured really doesn't exist. This is suicide.
Why don't we teach our children in school what they are? We should say to them, 'You are unique... you have the capacity for anything. You are a marvel'.
To learn anything other than the stuff you find in books, you need to be able to experiment, to make mistakes, to accept feedback, and to try again. It doesn't matter whether you are learning to ride a bike or starting a new career, the cycle of experiment, feedback, and new experiment is always there.
We cannot wait for great visions from great people, for they are in short supply. It is up to us to light our own small fires in the darkness.
Creativity needs a bit of untidiness. Make everything too neat and there is no room for experiment.
There is a difference between broke and being poor. Being broke is a temporary economic condition, but being poor is a disabling frame of mind and a depressed condition of your spirit, and you must vow to never, ever be poor again.
Why don't you think we should dream of an African team winning the World Cup for the first time? People never allow this thought to cross their minds, and it is shameful. When you try to even say it, people look at you as if you're joking, but they forget that dreaming is the first step to success.
Truly, “thoughts are things,” and powerful things at that, when they are mixed with definiteness of purpose, persistence, and a burning desire for their translation into riches, or other material objects.
I watched movies, obviously, just like anybody else, but there was nothing to make me think, 'I'm going to go to L.A. and become a movie star,' or anything like that.
Let excellence be your brand... When you are excellent, you become unforgettable.
Yes - en I's rich now, come to look at it. I owns myself, en I's wuth eight hund'd dollars. I wisht I had de money, I wouldn' want no mo'.
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