After two weeks of working on a project you know whether it will work or not.
I don't start with a design objective I start with a communication objective. I feel my project is successful if it communicates what it is supposed to communicate.
To be perfectly honest I think that as I'm growing older I'm just growing more impatient. I'll be very happy if at some point people say 'Michael's grown wiser and softer in his old age.' But we'll have to wait and see what my next project is.
Profit in business comes from repeat customers customers that boast about your project or service and that bring friends with them.
The essays in The Great Taos Bank Robbery were my project to win a Master of Arts degree in English when I quit being a newspaper editor and went back to college.