I think the true measure of success is in the product someone is able to produce, I have always told myself that you can estimate your success by saying that your product will be the product of both your knowledge and your effort that you put into something. What I mean by this is that someone with more skill in a certain area will be able to produce something of equal quality to something someone less skilled made in more time. Likewise, no matter how skilled you are (or not), you can continue to put in the effort until you have learned from your experiences, and you will eventually have a product equal to something a very naturally skilled person could have made. What’s important to my ‘equation’ is that neither skill nor effort can be zero, you can’t put no effort into something and expect something in return, similarly, you can’t overestimate your skills and skip to the dreaming phase, we all work up from zero.

To better my chances of success, I think something I really need to learn is time management and motivation. Firstly, I definitely have a problem with managing my time, I always put the things I enjoy first, and that sometimes gets in the way of my other tasks. Luckily, most of the things I plan to do for the rest of my life are what I find enjoyable, and I think motivation will not be a problem for me in those fields. Where motivation is a problem for me is in things I am not so fond of, particularly repetitive work that requires no logical thinking, or work that has no definite goal (how else can I say art?). I know that if I think more open-minded I could find joy in everything, so it is something I acknowledge I should work on. As for time management, I would call myself pretty efficient at getting work done at the last minute without compromising on quality, but I know I could do so much more if I always worked at that rate.

I have experienced my share of “you can’t do that” comments, but I actually appreciate them a lot, if someone took the time to tell me what I can’t do, I will gladly prove them wrong; I think criticism is a much stronger drive than support because telling someone they are doing great puts a ceiling on their thoughts, it tells them they should take a break and walk because they have already run so far. The quote I will always live by relates to this thinking: “As our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it.” – A. Einstein