A Tale of Questionable Success
Once upon a time there was a corporate manager who believed that if he learned one new business fact every day it would make him the most successful man in the business world and bring him happiness. So every evening after dinner, the corporate manager would sit on his front porch and recall the new business fact he had learned that day and add it to his memory of all the other new facts he learned every other day.
For twenty years and four months, every day he learned some new business fact and recalled it every evening.
Then one evening as he sat on his front porch, he tried to recall a new business fact he had learned that day that he never knew before. He thought and thought, but not one fact came to mind that he didn't already know.
On that seven thousand four hundred and twentieth day, he realized that all of those facts had made him the most successful man in the business world -- but he was unhappy.
So he decided to leave the corporate world where he knew every business fact there was to know and find a different world where he could learn something new every day that would make him successful and happy.
That was the beginning of his journey to becoming the world's greatest expert about himself.
For the next three months, with the help of a professional guide, he learned some new fact about himself every day. Then finally, together they unhooked the connections that made him think the most important thing in life was to learn some new business fact every day and they rewired them to a terminal that made him see that a successful and happy life was more than gathering facts.
He remained on this journey for seven more days when he finally found his true path.
After that, he never again sat down at the end of each day to recall a new fact he learned that day. Instead, at the end of each day, he created a new question that would help him understand how to live his next day with purpose and pleasure.
The Beginning.
How do you create a successful life?
While chasing an answer to, "what is success?", I discovered a book out of Wharton School of Publishing that smacked my question squarely on its head: "Success Built to Last: Creating a Life That Matters", by Jerry Porras, Steward Emery & Mark Thompson.
Unlike other trendy publications offering recycled axioms, mystical revelations or steps with numbers, this report provides factual information?from authoritative sources -- people who have achieved lasting success -- whether you agree with their politics and products or not.
After interviews with people like, Madeleine Albright, Maya Angelou, Lance Armstrong, David Barry, Jeff Bezos, Ken Blanchard, Bono, Sir Richard Branson, Jack Canfield, Jimmy Carter, Deepak Chopra, Bill Clinton, Steve Covey, Dalai Lama, Sally Field, Steve Forbes, Yuki Fuo, Bill Gates, Newt Gingrich, Steve Jobs, Quincy Jones, Jack LaLanne, Norman Lear, Yo-Yo Ma, Nelson Mandela, John McCain, Charles Schwab, Muhammad Yunus, Benjamin Zander and Deiter Zetsche (a partial list of 200); some advice for success was:
- Don't rely on the approval of others to pursue your goals, causes, or calling.
- Take the initiative despite social pressure rather than because of them.
- Be more committed to doing what you love than being loved by others.
- Don't wallow or obsess on a single defeat or rely on finding scapegoats or blame when things go wrong.
- Do place higher priority on being effective in getting the outcomes you seek.
Something else from the book to ponder:
You may discover you are currently tracking some definition of success never explicitly challenged. It would be a shame for this to remain the unconscious default of your life. Until you compare what really matters to you with what may haunt you about the popular notion of success, your existing concept of both could remain the invisible tyrant you unknowingly resent. If you want success built to last, then create a life that matters to you.
Quotes
"The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he is always doing both." -- James Michener
"Happy endings come from listening to that little voice inside your head - some call it the whisper - about what matters to you. It is a voice that echoes through every cell in your body, straining to be heard like a silent scream. It's a nagging, often irritating 'need' craving a response". -- "Success Built to Last: Creating a Life That Matters."
