Guy Kawasaki: Judge others by their intentions and yourself by your results

Guy Kawasaki: “Judge others by their intentions and yourself by your results. If you want to be at peace with the world, here’s what you should do. When you judge others, look at what they intended to do. When you judge yourself, look at what you’ve actually accomplished. This attitude is bound to keep you humble. By contrast, if you judge others by their accomplishments (which are usually shortfalls) and yourself by your intentions (which are usually lofty), you will be an angry, despised little man.”

Sounds like good advice to me. It’s quite easy to see the intention behind your own work, but every so often, especially when you show it to someone else, the gestalt changes and you can see it with their eyes—and it’s usually not as pretty as you’d hoped. It’s a good exercise to see if you can do that on your own: Squint your eyes, pull back a bit and take a fresh look.

Conversely, when you look at other people’s work, you only see the results unless you actively seek out or ask for the intention behind it. Which is usually a lot better than what you first saw. Lesson learned! ”;->”