On Recognition

[dukealien]

On Recognition

Does a lack of recognition for your achievements make them less significant?
No, but yet we naturally crave it.
We crave our success to be recognized.
We are social creatures, the internal satisfaction is not enough.
This is true for someone who chases reputation over achievement.
Are you doing what you are doing for recognition or something greater?
Aim higher.
Be humble.
Recognition is shallow, worth little if it is the sole aim.
It will lead to nothing more than arrogance.
In fact, aim higher and when you do receive recognition, remain humble, be respectful, and move past it with haste.
Do not bask in the glory for you have not achieved the higher goal.
There is more work to do. 
The one who celebrates themselves is despised.
You should feel embarrassed if caught in self-celebration.

Recognition. Respect it. Discard it. Continue the pursuit for greater.

This reminds me (in a good way) of those YouTube™ videos where one or more heroic marble statues (likely AI-gnerated) is displayed along with quotes from Plato, Marcus Aurelius, Nietzsche, and the like.  Stoic, usually.  With a little sociobiology thrown in.

As I see it, recognition is both overrated and underrated:  you may not share all their goals, but exceeding other people's expectations is at least a kind of guide to how you're doing - for good or ill.  As an old Air Force officer once told me, "To be recognized you have to either be totally sh*t-hot all the time, or break an airplane a year."

And then there's money.  It's a way to keep score, yes, but it also shows that at least you're doing something somebody else wanted done and couldn't do himself.  Whether what he wanted was good or not is another question.