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.
Do your homework and know your business better than anyone. Otherwise, someone who knows more and works harder will kick your ass.
If things aren’t breaking, then you’re not moving fast enough. People learn by making mistakes.
Money is power, and you ought to be reasonably ambitious to have it.
I realized why I can cook for different environments. Because of everything I've gone through growing up. Why can I cook for a Hollywood event without blinking an eye? Because I cooked at the Beverly Hilton and because I moved to Villa Park. Why can I cook for kids on Hollywood Boulevard at night? Because I went through it.
Hard-earned achievement brings a sense of self-worth. Work builds and refines character, creates beauty, and is the instrument of our service to one another and to God. A consecrated life is filled with work, sometimes repetitive, sometimes menial, sometimes unappreciated but always work that improves, orders, sustains, lifts, ministers, aspires.
Good is the enemy of great.. The vast majority of good companies remain just that - good, but not great.
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