Chase The Result, Not The Reward
Prizes are shiny. Medals sparkle. Certificates look nice framed on the wall.
But here’s the truth: the people who really change the world rarely do it for trophies. They chase results. And when they do that, success has a funny way of chasing them.
Consider Tim Berners-Lee. He invented the World Wide Web — the thing powering your TikTok, your homework, your late-night YouTube binge. And he gave it away for free.
He didn’t patent it. He didn’t cash in. He didn’t even get a Nobel Prize. But he achieved something even greater: billions of people connected, a world transformed, and a legacy that no award could match.
Now here’s a name you probably haven’t come across: Norman Borlaug. He’s the scientist behind the Green Revolution.
In the 1940s, when famine was a constant threat in places like Mexico, India, and Pakistan, Borlaug began working in the fields.
He spent unrelenting years experimenting with new wheat varieties, better farming methods, and cross-breeding that could feed more people on less land.
It wasn’t glamorous. It wasn’t quick. He failed, he adjusted, he kept going. He wasn’t chasing fame — he was chasing crops that wouldn’t die. And the result? His work is estimated to have saved over a billion lives from starvation. That’s not a typo: a billion.
Eventually, yes, the world noticed. He got the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970. But that came after decades of chasing results, not recognition.
That’s what joins Berners-Lee and Borlaug. Neither set out to build a résumé. They set out to solve a problem. One wanted to connect people. The other wanted to feed them. And because they chased the result so relentlessly, the rewards — the prizes, the knighthoods, the peace medals — came knocking anyway.
What This Means for You
It’s easy to get stuck chasing the wrong thing. The grade. The trophy. The award. The number of likes. But those are by-products, not the main event. If you want to make a dent in the world, put your energy where it counts: into the actual work, the real result.
- Berners-Lee didn’t invent the Web for clout — he invented it to connect humanity.
- Borlaug didn’t battle wheat diseases for glory — he did it to stop famine.
Their results are what last.
So here’s the big lesson: chase the result, not the reward. Do the work that matters, and let the medals take care of themselves.
This idea is at the heart of my forthcoming book on Visionaries, where I explore the lives of people like Borlaug, and others who looked beyond recognition and instead pursued the breakthroughs that reshaped our world. Their stories remind us that the point isn’t the prize — it’s the impact.
So if you’re dreaming big, forget about the applause for now. Build something real. Solve a problem. Save a life. Connect a community. Because in the end, history doesn’t remember who got the ribbon. It remembers who got the results.
If you’d like to be notified when the Visionaries is published, click on the free SUBSCRIBE button and an occasional newsletter.There’s more about result-minded historical figures in my recent books: Conversation with Remarkable Women and Conversations with Marvellous Muses. Both can be ordered at www.andrewsbooks.site or on Amazon.