A continuation of the Alpha Engineer’s Journey – where the struggle through rejection, persistence, perseverance, and determination revealed that virtue is the only true success.*
After years of chasing achievement and external validation, I’ve discovered that true success lies not in what you accomplish, but in who you become. The four cardinal virtues i.e. Courage, Justice, Temperance, and Wisdom, have become my compass, transforming obstacles into opportunities and freeing me from the tyranny of external approval.
The Moment Everything Changed
Standing here at The Hill, Tele’a-Laiko in Vaini, on the same land where my great-grandfather Siegfried Seelenfreund pioneered commerce a century ago, I realized something profound had shifted within me. The Milestones, Opportunities, Acceptances, none of these outcomes defined me anymore.
What defined me was how I walked through each experience.
The Alpha Engineer journey I’ve documented over these past months, from battling the consultant cargo cult to building Pasifika.xyz, from facing rejection to embracing transparency, was never really about the destinations I reached. It was about the character forged in the crucible of struggle.
Marcus Aurelius understood this when he wrote: “You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” The Stoic emperor knew what I’m only now fully grasping i.e. that virtue is not just a nice philosophical concept, it’s the most practical framework for navigating a world obsessed with metrics that don’t matter.
The Four Pillars of True Success
Courage – Building Loudly in the Face of Doubt
Remember when I chose to be loud about my ambitions? When I declared my intentions to evolve from Alpha Engineer to Queen Bee? Sounds familiar? “Who does he think he is?” “Another dreamer disrupting the status quo.” “Let’s see how long this lasts.”
Each whisper became fuel. Not because I needed to prove them wrong, but because courage demands action despite uncertainty. Courage isn’t the absence of fear, it’s building Pasifika.xyz while others question your longevity. It’s publishing your failures alongside your victories because authenticity requires bravery.
The courage I’ve cultivated through this journey isn’t reckless boldness. It’s the measured calculated strength to do what’s right when it’s difficult, to speak truth when silence is safer, to build solutions when others are content with problems.
Justice – Serving Something Greater Than Yourself
Justice isn’t just about fairness in transactions, it’s about aligning your work with what serves the greater good. When I wrote about the consultant cargo cult, I wasn’t just venting frustration. I was fighting for justice for local Alpha Engineers whose expertise gets dismissed in favor of imported solutions.
Building blockchain infrastructure for Pacific Island communities isn’t just a business opportunity, it’s an act of justice. When traditional financial systems fail our people, when remittance fees eat away at families’ survival funds, when our voices get marginalized in global economic conversations, creating decentralized alternatives becomes a moral imperative.
Justice means asking not “What can I gain?” but “What can I contribute?” It means building systems that empower others, not just yourself. It means using your platform to elevate your community, not just your personal brand.
Temperance – The Discipline of Focus
Perhaps the hardest virtue to master in our attention deficit world. Temperance isn’t about deprivation, it’s about discipline. It’s about saying no to good opportunities so you can say yes to great ones.
When Google said I wasn’t the best fit, temperance helped me see this as clarity, not rejection. When the ADB opportunity materialized, temperance prevented me from changing course just because a prestigious institution showed interest. When critics demanded I conform to their academic frameworks, temperance kept me focused on building rather than defending.
Temperance is what allowed me to delay my parliamentary run to focus on substantial building. It’s what keeps me committed to Pasifika.xyz when easier paths beckon. It’s the daily discipline of choosing character over convenience, substance over style, building over talking.
Wisdom – Learning to Love the Process
Wisdom isn’t intelligence or knowledge, it’s the ability to see patterns, to understand that every obstacle contains instruction, to recognize that the journey shapes you more than the destination.
The Google interview process taught me I’m exactly where I need to be. Every other rejection clarified my mission. The appointment to Tonga Cable validated not my worthiness, but the value of consistent work. Each experience either positive or negative, became a teacher when approached with wisdom.
Wisdom also means understanding that your ancestors’ struggles inform your present mission. Standing on land where Siegfried once built the first Burns Philips store, I feel the weight of inherited purpose. His entrepreneurial spirit, interrupted by the Holocaust, continues through my work in Web3. Wisdom connects these threads across time.
The Great Liberation
Here’s what I’ve discovered i.e. when you optimize for virtue instead of achievement, you become unshakeable.
External validation can’t elevate you because your worth isn’t tied to others’ opinions. External rejection can’t diminish you because your value isn’t dependent on institutional approval. You become what the Stoics called “self-sufficient” i.e. not in an isolated way, but in a grounded way.
This isn’t spiritual bypassing or positive thinking. It’s practical philosophy. When your primary metric is “Am I becoming more courageous, just, temperate, and wise?” every experience becomes useful data rather than a verdict on your value.
The Obstacle as Teacher
“The obstacle is the way” i.e. this isn’t just a motivational slogan. It’s recognition that resistance shapes strength, that difficulties develop character, that the path through the problem is often the path to the solution.
Every consultant who dismissed local expertise taught me to build louder. Every institution that prioritized credentials over contributions showed me why decentralized systems matter. Every rejection clarified my mission. Every acceptance reinforced my direction.
The obstacles didn’t disappear when I shifted to virtue based living. But they transformed from barriers into training equipment, from problems into curricula.
Walking With Grace
Grace under pressure isn’t about maintaining composure, it’s about moving through challenges with virtue as your guide. It’s about responding rather than reacting, about building rather than defending, about serving rather than seeking.
When you walk this path with the right mindset, you discover something remarkable i.e. success stops being something you chase and becomes something you emanate. People start recognizing your value not because you’re trying to prove it, but because virtue is inherently attractive.
Your work improves because you’re no longer creating for validation but for contribution. Your relationships deepen because you’re no longer performing for approval but being authentic. Your impact expands because you’re building from character rather than ego.
The Practical Revolution
This isn’t abstract philosophy, it’s operational wisdom. Here’s how virtue based living changes everything:
In business: You build products that serve rather than exploit. You hire for character rather than just competence. You measure success by value created, not just revenue captured.
In relationships: You give without keeping score. You speak truth with compassion. You support others’ growth rather than compete for attention.
In facing setbacks: You ask “What is this teaching me?” rather than “Why is this happening to me?” You look for the lesson rather than someone to blame.
In making decisions: You choose what’s right over what’s easy. You prioritize long-term character over short-term convenience. You build systems that outlast your involvement.
To My Fellow Builders
If you’re reading this and feeling exhausted by the endless pursuit of external validation, if you’re tired of measuring your worth by metrics that fluctuate with market conditions, if you’re ready to build something more substantial than a resume, this path is available to you.
Start with one virtue. Pick courage and do one thing today that you’ve been avoiding. Choose justice and use your skills to serve something bigger than yourself. Embrace temperance and say no to one distraction. Practice wisdom and ask what your current challenge is trying to teach you.
The Alpha Engineer evolution doesn’t end with entrepreneurship or board positions or consulting contracts. It ends with becoming someone whose character creates value regardless of circumstances, whose virtue generates influence regardless of titles, whose presence makes things better regardless of recognition.
The Continuing Journey
Tomorrow I’ll wake up and continue building Pasifika.xyz. I’ll fulfill my responsibilities as Tonga Cable Chairman. I’ll engage with opportunities like the ADB consultancy from a place of service rather than need. I’ll keep writing, coding, teaching, and creating.
But now I do it all differently. I build from virtue rather than hunger. I serve from abundance rather than scarcity. I measure success by character rather than achievement.
The destination was never a position or a title or a bank balance. The destination was becoming someone capable of handling any position, worthy of any title, and generous regardless of wealth.
In honoring Siegfried’s entrepreneurial legacy and the wisdom of Marcus Aurelius, in building on the foundation laid by all my previous struggles and victories, I’ve discovered the ultimate Alpha Engineer evolution i.e. from someone who builds impressive things to someone who is impressive while building things.
The journey continues. The obstacles remain. But with virtue as my compass and grace as my companion, every step forward is a victory, not over circumstances, but over the person I used to be.
To my fellow builders – Let virtue be your code. Let character be your legacy. Let service be your success.
The ascension continues, but now we know what we’re ascending toward.
Let’s Go!
You can follow my continued journey on Hackernoon, at liavaa.space, on GitHub github.com/EdwinLiavaa, and through our work at Pasifika.xyz.
