As mentioned earlier, we are judged only by what we do.

while intent underlies all activity, it is assessed after the deed when trying to assign moral or ethical value. For example, I buy someone a drink at a bar. Afterwards they can decide either that I wanted to see them enjoy a drink, or I wanted to get them drunk or loosen them up for pernicious reasons. But neither judgement can occur until the event, buying a drink, happens. Other people can't judge you as generous or crafty based upon your intention to buy them a drink, which you never acted on. Intent, while internal to you, is fabricated by others through your external deeds.

Only you can judge yourself based on your intent.

It makes sense to not act upon your intentions only when you are certain they are bad. I.E. I'm not going to strangle that motorist who cut me off. I know the intent which would lead to strangling is bad. However, it's perhaps man's greatest waste to not act upon good intent. When you know you should do something, feel the impulse to do it, and yet don't. Shyness or timidity cannot justify this.

It has been my intent to travel to X location and teach indiginous peoples pottery in order to provide them an eco-friendly outlet for creative expression. But the closest I've been to the place is in my head and I haven't even learned pottery myself. Some people would be impressed and say, "Wow, it's so great that you want to help those poor, misshapen, off-white people of X." You can build a pretty impressive list of admirers with these intentions. Eventually they'll figure you out, that you are all-talk and the sheen of the impression will lose luster.

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No matter how successful you are, there will (or can) always be someone or some group of people who disbelieve your success. I'll never forget the documentary of Steven Tyler (Aerosmith), where he visited his elderly father conveniently for the cameras. His father did not give two pennies for his rock-god of a son. In fact, the interview (or visit) consisted of his father "teaching" him some hokey tune on the piano as if Dad was Mozart and son was snot-nosed schoolboy. The father was more interested in playing greensleaves than any cameras or interview about his son's success or their relationship. Aside from telling us where Mr. Tyler got his rock-star ego, we know that even wild success can be undermined and made non-existent simply by refusing to recognize it. Perhaps this is where the much hyped (in this particular documentary) rift between father and son finds its sources.

Shakespeare's contemporaries (i.e. Johnson) had little respect for his work. He was a relative unknown even fifty years after his death. Success comes in many forms. The most important is the one you recognize.

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The compound preposition off of is generally regarded as informal and is best avoided in formal speech and writing: He stepped off (not off of) the platform. --dictionary.com