Doing the Work Is Enough: Stop Letting Others Dictate Your Worth

Doing the work is enough because results, recognition, and rewards often depend on other people. The page uses Belisarius, Diogenes, and John Kennedy Toole to show that good work can be ignored, punished, or delayed without losing its value.

Reading notes

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• Belisarius did his job well, served Rome faithfully, and was still denied public honor, suspected, stripped of wealth, and, in the legend, forced to beg.
• A person can control effort, ethics, and performance, but not whether others appreciate the work or reward it.
• Ego makes people tie their well-being to validation, praise, compensation, and outcomes.
• The page says humility means admitting how little control we have over recognition and other people’s reactions.
• Activists, leaders, and inventors may do the right work without seeing the results society expects.
• John Wooden’s definition of success centers on peace of mind from making the effort to do one’s best.
• Marcus Aurelius is quoted as tying well-being to one’s own actions rather than to what others say or do.
• John Kennedy Toole’s novel was rejected many times, then published after his death and later won the Pulitzer Prize.
• The page closes by saying external approval should not decide whether the work was worth doing.