Rodney Mullen is the "Godfather" of skateboarding for inventing most of the sport's tricks. He started the first skateboarder-owned company, which he eventually sold for $46 million. In his 50s now, he still skateboards every day. He attributes his sustained success to this: "It's such a gift to be able to [do] something and to love it for the sake of it...I have that. I’ve nurtured it in my life." "I see people with talent, with all those things," he says, "but the one thing they don't have is just that love for doing it for the sake of it...So if there's anything, just find joy in what you do for the sake of it." There's a word for what Rodney's describing: Autotelic. From the Greek "auto" (self) & "telos" (end), an Autotelic is "someone or something that has a purpose in, and not apart from, itself." As opposed to someone who views their work as a means to some end (money, fame, etc.)—for an Autotelic... "The work is the win," as Ryan Holiday likes to say. Since you control the work you put in and not how it’s received... "Ultimately, you have to love doing it," Ryan once told me. "You have to get to a place where doing the work is the win and everything else is extra.” You have to "find joy in what you do for the sake of it." - - - "The closer we get to the core of all being, the more synonymous the effort and its reward.” Follow @bpoppenheimer for more content like this!