What’s the best way to build a brand for the long term? In a word: culture.

If you're worried about putting food on the table or putting a roof over your head, that stress is definitely will contribute to unhappiness, but once you have your basic needs met then incremental money.

The brand is just a lagging indicator of a company's culture.

If someone is self-aware, then they can always continue to grow. If they're not self-aware, I think it's harder for them to evolve or adapt beyond who they already are.

My advice is to stop trying to "network" in the traditional business sense, and instead just try to build up the number and depth of your friendships, where the friendship itself is its own reward. The more diverse your set of friendships are, the more likely you'll derive both personal and business benefits from your friendship later down the road. You won't know exactly what those benefits will be, but if your friendships are genuine, those benefits will magically appear 2-3 years later down the road.

Launching a business is kind of like a motorboat: You can go very quickly and turn fast.

The ultimate definition of success is: you could lose everything that you have and truly be okay with it. Your happiness isn't based on external factors.