Musings on a Shoemaker's Shoes, Advice, and Kindness

...and how it relates to achievement

Apologies for the unannounced hiatus, which was both unexpected and undesired but unavoidable. I won’t go into the details of why, except that I got very busy very quickly and had to put this publication on the back burner.

Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash

Life has a strong sense of humor, though. The irony was that the day before the hiatus was to be forced by circumstances, I had posted this note:

As I had to leave behind for a while Achievement, TX, notifications of likes for this post kept showing up on my phone, and without any new post from me on my Substack, as the likes for and visibility of this note increased, lo and behold, new subscribers signed in! Hey, hard work does pay 😉

First, welcome to new subscribers, and thank you to all of you who have stayed loyal to this publication. You have no idea how much this means to me. Also, new posts are coming.

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There is an expression in French that says, literally, that shoemakers always have the worst shoes (“les cordonniers sont toujours les plus mal chaussés”)—in English, “the shoemaker’s son always goes barefoot.” The expression, in French, means to convey that we don’t always apply the same care for our own affairs as we do for our clients’… or for people we care about.

Life's setbacks have taught me that, given the same situation, it is harder to remain objective when it happens to you than when it happens to a friend—even when you know the right thing to do.

This publication is the pursuit of my desire to celebrate achievement, analyze what leads to it, and share its stories so that others may be inspired by and learn from them.

Yet, I recently failed to find inspiration and advice in the very stories I’ve written about, so focused that I was on the obstacle before me.

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It is crucially important to surround yourself with people who love you or care enough about you to tell you the truth even—especially—when they know how hard it will be for you to hear it—and who have the courage to do so. Surrounding ourselves with nice, yes-people may be comforting, but comfort is not the way to growth (or achievement). Nor does it usually lead to the best advice.

Yet, during a storm, it can sometimes be hard to know whether you should listen to your own advice or get input from people around you. It does not have to be either-or. I’ve learned to pay attention to the people in my life who show up in the hard times, not just the easy ones, and who are kind but who, I know, will tell me the truth. I’ve noticed that these positive traits often come together, not separately.

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If this sounds cryptic, that’s because it is, in part, meant to be 😁 However, there was a lesson to learn for me related to achievement that I wanted to share.

I am grateful to a couple of people who showed up and told me to keep going, or simply supported me, when I was about to give up. They reminded me of the importance of resilience and perseverance. I am also thankful for people I barely knew, if I knew them at all, who have simply shown kindness that gave me a boost when, unbeknown to them, I needed it most at that specific time.

I’ve come to believe that kindness is an integral part of and necessary for achievement. Work to be the best soul you can be and surround yourself with soulmates.