“I'm doing the right thing and it still isn't working out.”
Virtue doesn't come with a guarantee of outcome. You can do everything right and still face hard results, that's not a contradiction. Doing right regardless means regardless of whether it produces what you hoped. Outcomes are not fully yours to control. Your conduct is.
Your Practice
Write down two lists: what you've done right, and what the outcome has been. Ask honestly, is there anything in the first list you'd actually change? If not, hold your course and do one more right thing today. Character isn't proven by outcomes. It's proven by what you keep doing when outcomes disappoint you.
The Architects
“There's this culture at Stripe of just really prizing the small details. And we talk a lot about craftsmanship and rigor and abstractions that can endure over decades and sort of really getting those right.”