The refrigerator

Note to self

You received an email that caught you off guard.

A young man wrote to say that years ago, an older colleague shared your essay Dreams Deferred with him. He printed it and taped it to his refrigerator in his small New York apartment.

While you were wondering if anyone was reading, your words were part of someone’s daily life.

The work traveled without you. One person thought it was worth passing along. Another thought it was worth keeping in sight.

Let that recalibrate you.

You may be featured on Bloomberg. You may speak at Sohn. You may sit in rooms that once felt unreachable. And yet what moves you most is a refrigerator in 2017.

Be careful what you measure. Take this as evidence that the work matters. The real compounding happens in unseen exchanges.

Success will try to move the measuring stick. Bring it back to this. If it helps one person at the right moment, that’s enough.

Stay close to that simplicity. Stay grateful.