Let's Talk About Success ⭐️

2 Extremes of Success and How to Become Your Own Source of Gravity 🪐☀️

It’s the end of the 2024.

Something tells me you probably don’t want to think about work right now?

Given that it’s the holidays, I thought today we could explore a slightly different topic.

In 2025, I’ll be expanding my focus. You can expect me to speak more broadly about topics like technology, consciousness, climate tech, and sustainable futures. If this sounds good, then please stick around and subscribe to support me. This is how I make a living. ☺️

Announcements

1. By popular demand, I’ve created The Craft’s slack channel. Join here.

2. I’ve also announced the new dates for the Growth Design course: Jan 6-10th. Start 2025 strong and come have fun in live workshops with other designers. 🔥

   

3. This week Youtube unexpectedly deleted The Craft’s account, 😭 which I’ve had for 4+ years. This really bums me out as it was my way of connecting with 13,000+ people over design. Even worse, my Growth Design course content was hosted here so if you’re in the middle of the self-paced course, please be patient with me as I try to recover the account or re-upload these vids.

   Subscribe to my new channel here.

Bonus: Use my Sustainable Futures Prism in your ideation phase to brainstorm and avoid negative consequences.

---

I made a post on Tiktok that seemed to resonate with people so I thought I’d share it here. Let’s talk about 2 extremes of looking at success.👇🏽

1. Hating on successful people

   OR

2. Idolizing successful people

1. Hating on Successful People

When people achieve success, they often face criticism and attempts to tear them down. This behavior reveals more about the critic than the person being criticized.

The world is simply a reflection of ourselves.

Here are two reasons why this can happen:

Personal Insecurities

When someone reacts negatively to another's success, they're usually projecting their own insecurities. Success in others can trigger uncomfortable feelings of inadequacy or challenge our beliefs about what's possible. Instead of using these feelings as catalysts for growth and self-reflection, some choose to tear others down in an attempt to make themselves feel better. This reaction typically stems from avoidance and unprocessed emotions about their own potential.

Victim Mindset

What can also happen is projecting onto people some sort of justification for why they are successful as a way to validate why we are not. For example, "They succeeded because of privilege," or "They had better education." It’s a way to outsource the blame for our own lack of success. It’s a victim mindset. By assigning an advantage, we create a narrative that absolves us from taking action toward our own goals. This keeps us stuck in a cycle of inaction and blame. We can acknowledge some people are undoubtedly born with more privileged, while simultaneously taking responsibility for our own life.

Moving forward requires a shift from criticism to self-reflection: instead of focusing on others, turn that spotlight back to yourself. 🔦 Use the energy to drive your own definition of success.

2. Idolizing Successful People

Going from one extreme to another, we have idolizing successful people.

True success comes from being your own guiding light, not from orbiting someone else's star.

It's natural and healthy to admire others' achievements and draw inspiration from them, but there's a difference between appreciation and idolization. The latter is putting someone on a pedestal.

Here are 3 hidden costs of idolizing someone:

Denies Human Complexity