Success Quote by Lynn Johnston

Humility here isnt the soft-focus virtue poster; its a survival skill learned in public. Lynn Johnston, who built a career turning domestic life into four-panel truth, frames self-criticism as a controlled dose of discomfort: enough to keep your ego from inflating, not so much that it becomes self-erasure. The phrasing "a certain amount" matters. It signals calibration, the way a working cartoonist calibrates line weight and punchline timing. Johnston isnt romanticizing insecurity; shes prescribing a manageable amount of it.

Then comes the harder, more adult lesson: success doesnt buy you moral consensus. "You can still make enemies" punctures the just-world fantasy that good work and good intentions inevitably produce goodwill. Its an argument against the naive feedback loop of approval-seeking: if opposition is inevitable, your compass cant be audience comfort. The subtext is especially pointed for a cartoonist, a profession that lives on being readable, relatable, and widely liked while also making choices that will irritate someone - a character, a storyline, a boundary pushed.

Theres also a subtle generosity in the word "realizing". Humility isnt framed as punishment delivered by haters; its insight gained by noticing how attention works. Johnston is describing the emotional math of visibility: the bigger you get, the more surfaces there are for people to project onto. Self-criticism keeps you honest; enemies keep you realistic. Together they prevent the most common creative failure: believing your own press.