Measuring Success
What is success to you?
There are few words in the english language that can have such a wide range of definitions and interpretations as the word success.
The word success, said to two people can mean something entirely different to each of them. What success means to me, will likely differ from what it means to you.
Success is truly an arbitrary metric. How you define success is up to you.
For my entire life I viewed success as a meaning that was predetermined by what the societal measures of success were. Money, fame and social status.
Society likes to paint success as having achieved a certain amount of fame, wealth or social status. We label people that because of an outer appearance. Is that really success?
It took me over thirty years to understand that I get to define what success is. We each get to define what success is. I decide for myself. You decide for yourself.
I think back to the old man who’s now in the nursing home and nearing the end of his life.
He had been a highly successful business owner. He was the richest person in town and had the biggest house.
Throughout life, his focus was on achieving great wealth. He never had enough. He’d step on anyone who stepped in his way. Others envied him for his fame, success and money. But his drive to always make more money, ultimately drove everyone away. The almighty dollar ruled his life.
He doesn’t talk to any of his family anymore. Nobody comes to see him.
He watches all the people who come and visit the others. But nobody comes to visit him.
Now he sits alone in a nursing home at the end of his life. How do you think he views success?
What is success to you? How do you define it? Maybe it’s:
Waking up with the freedom to what you want today.
Being able to give back in some way
To do things that you love
Being home with your family every night
To coach your kid’s sports teams
Having a spouse and raising a family
A career or job title that you have or want to get
Achieving your bucket list
Being in good health
Conquering a lifelong goal
Earning a certain amount of money each year
Not having to work the weekends
Writing a book
To own your own business
Working in your dream job that you earned
To be retired and have time to do whatever you want
Having enough money to eat at your favorite restaurants without worrying about the bill, putting your bills on auto pay, traveling places you’ve always wanted to go and driving cars that don’t give you issues.
What drives your happiness and purpose? You may already be a success in many ways and not even realize it.
Success has no deadline, just as it has no definition.
The Coffee Table ☕
Thomas Kopelman had a very good post called 9 Biggest Mistakes High Income/High Net Worth Millennials Make. This is an excellent list and filled with information. It’s a list that can really be applicable for anyone.
From time to time I will go back and review posts that Morgan Housel has written. I reread Rich and Anonymous and there is so much truth in what he wrote. I love the line, "My theory is that the more money people have, the more social debt they tend to be burdened with."
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