70. THE END

Don't aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run—in the long-run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it.

 - Viktor Frankl

I lied to you a little while ago.

I did write this book for you, my beautiful daughters. I wrote it for anyone’s daughters or sons who dare to dream about making the world a better place. I wrote it for you, the light of all of our lives, the heirs of tomorrow, both those that have come and those that will come to pass.

I wrote it for the best of us.

One day, you will have to carry forward the spark of our humanity. You may not know how, or where it is, or whether the spark is even real or worth protecting.

Don’t worry about any of that.

The spark is inside you, where it’s always been. All you have to do is practice serving others, and don’t give up. And lastly, I believe the spark is worth preserving with every fiber of my existence for the simple reason that it created you, and, in case there was ever any doubt, you are the best of us. You all are.

You have the power to make a difference.

I believe in you.

So, believe in yourself.

Now, finally, I can put down the pen. May the future bring what it will.