Profit for a company is like oxygen for a person. If you don't have enough of it, you're out of the game. But if you think your life is about breathing, you're really missing something.
- Peter Drucker
The best things in life are known by their absence. You do not know the worth of your health until you get sick, the value of love till you are lonely, or the benefits of democracy till you experience dictatorship.
I once read a play by Tagore, the Indian poet. In it, the king challenges an artist: "Who needs you?" The artist responds: "Imagine the world without us. Then you will know our value."
Fine artists serve society by just being what they are - by being agents of change, even without intending to be.
It is not the intent that counts. It is the result of your life's work.
As long as you add value, you are effective, whether you intend to do so or whether you do not intend to do so. It is the impact you have. It is what remains after you are gone. And that happens when others are affected by what you do. That is called being effective.
- Dr Ichak Adizes, On Effectiveness in Personal Life
