"Success" is not the goal of life. Only by living your true nature and not wasting your life can you be happy. To measure everything and value its significance in one's own life rather than how much benefit they can bring to oneself is a true temperament. Only when people live in this world and do what they really love can they be happy. This love comes from his heart, not external interests (money, status, reputation, rights, etc.). He likes to do this thing just because he thinks it is beautiful in itself, and he is attracted by this beauty. For example, a person who is recognized as a "self-abandoner" who does not want to make progress gives up the opportunity to become a "successful person" just because he likes flowers and trees. He opens up a garden and devotes his efforts to cultivating flowers and trees. When he was gardening with flowers, he felt very at ease. No matter where he goes, he will think about those flowers and trees, just like a mother cares about her children. In this way, he lived a fulfilling life. On the contrary, if he does not do what he wants to do, no matter how big an official he becomes, how rich he becomes, or a recognized "successful person", his heart will always be empty. Once he loses his official position or becomes bankrupt, his emptiness will be fully exposed, and he will be in panic all day long. He will find that he has nothing to do in the world, as if the world does not need him and he is just a superfluous person.
If you do something for profit, you can't take into account whether it is pleasant or not. For example, the "strugglers" in this flashy fame-and-money society complain endlessly while still struggling. This is true, because I know that external interests are a kind of coercive force that makes them do things, and external interests are more important than pleasure (for example, students under the current pedantic education system are struggling and being destroyed by the struggle. Their parents only know that they should work hard to "study" so that they can be civil servants in the future, but they are insulting the word "study" and the bad nature of the Chinese people). On the contrary, things done out of temperament are done just to satisfy the soul, and pleasure is the basic criterion. If we don't feel happy, we have to wonder whether there are interests at play.
You said, you have to live a decent life, I said, you have to live a decent life. Wealth and fame are like clothes, so you might as well get some and wear them. But the clothes come and go, but I am still me. Take off your clothes and look in the mirror to see what you look like. Everything that can be called beautiful has a meaning. The meaning of love is the intoxication and satisfaction when falling in love, rather than the conclusion of a good relationship one day. The meaning of creation is also the intoxication and satisfaction when creating, rather than becoming famous all over the world one day. If the thing itself cannot give people intoxication and satisfaction, it has no meaning and cannot be called beautiful.
It doesn't matter whether you become a thinker or a philosopher, or whether you have a reputation that will last forever in history. I only hope that with this sincere attitude (as I said before about faith) and the true nature of life, the sky can no longer cover my eyes, and the earth can no longer cover my heart. The happiness in this is far from being comparable to flashy fame.
People do not only belong to the times. No matter what the times, no one has to give up the happiness of his soul for worldly interests. Happiness in life comes first from life and secondly from soul. Love life, be good at savoring the inherent joy of life, pay attention to the soul at the same time, and interact with some great souls in history. This way, you can still live life to the fullest even in times of emptiness.
