Shut up and deliver

It's quite amusing how most people find it they deserve credit for their effort. For instance, if you're into sports, playing soccer or what ever and your team isn't exactly doing so well, it'd be natural to at least appreciate the good effort. It is natural to create the illusion of that good effort being something aside the result of the match.

"Oh, so we lost, but at least we were giving it our all out there, and that's something to be proud of." No, it's not. If giving it your all isn't good enough for you to win the match, then that alone isn't something to be proud of. Your effort is reflected in your results, and therefore you shouldn't extract it from the equation and treat it as a sole factor. You look at your results and judge by it as a whole. Then you can extract the different factors and figure out where you need to improve, but they have nothing to say, unless the end product delivers.

This applies to every aspect of life. If you do one thing, that alone will not define you as a person. Only the sum of your actions will define you. You can be proud of a single good deed, but it will be a fake pride unless your sum of actions define you as a good person.

If you've tried your best, but still fail to deliver, do not expect a pat on the shoulder for good effort, for you have not deserved it.