I like this Thoreau quote about selling baskets:
“Did I think it worth my while to weave them, and instead of studying how to make it worth men’s while to buy my baskets, I studied rather how to avoid the necessity of selling them. The life which men praise and regard as successful is but one kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the others?”
The point is made after noting that Indians were making baskets and expecting people to buy them. They had the belief that people would buy the baskets simply because they existed and not because they had been marketed and “sold”.
Henry also made some baskets. He then tried to decide on a path to success. One way was to make the baskets, market them, sell them and gain a profit. This would be seen in almost everyone’s eyes as success. A product has been created, manufactured, marketed and sold for a profit. Success!
He thought another way to succeed would be to figure out a way to carry on without doing any of that.
One man finds a job, goes to work, earns a paycheck and buys some groceries. Success!
Another doesn’t bother getting a job, works for himself planting a garden and raising chickens, never earns a paycheck and eats just as well. Some would call him lazy or even a bum.
All he did was choose a different path to the same result.
One is viewed as successful and the other not.
It is indeed a strange world we live in.
Still feels like high school.
True success comes to those who can do what needs to be done in any way they please without feeling obliged to appease the crowd.
Joel Stiff's Adventure 