People who achieve success and drive progress deeply understand the cause-effect relationships that govern reality and have principles for using them to get what they want. The converse is also true: Idealists who are not well grounded in reality cause problems, but not progress.

What does a successful life look like? We all have our own deep-seated needs and we have to decide for ourselves what success is. Some people want to change the world and others just want to operate in simple harmony with it and savor life. Neither is better. Each one of us needs to decide what we value most and choose the paths we take to achieve it.