Reflection on success

As we come back from the holiday season and we realise we are just about 3 months from the end of yet another year, a lot of us feel under pressure to demonstrate success and ensure success is at the core of everything we do.

The notion of success in today’s society has largely been reduced to money and power, and, though this might work, or appear to work, in the short term, in the long term it won’t. So it’s important to think and redefine what success means, to each of us.

So now let’s talk about success. What is success to you?

There are two definitions you can find in the dictionary: the achieving of the results wanted or hoped for and something that achieves positive results.

When we talk about a "successful" person, we're typically talking about someone who's got billions in their bank account, someone who's authored multiple bestsellers, or maybe someone who's in charge of an entire company or even a nation.

But can one live without achieving some amount of money?

I remember once saying to a friend that money wasn’t everything, and I was reminded that no poor person was ever heard so say such a thing. True. And let’s be honest, if you remember Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the basic needs such as the physiological needs of air, water and food, closely followed by safety needs such as being those personal, financial, health and well being, pretty much need a certain amount of money to make us comfortable.So one could argue that a first measure of success is ensuring these needs are met. 

But should one stop there?

Maslow’s then explains social belonging and self esteem are what humans aspire to when the basics are met. Most of us probably see work and social status as a definition of success. Our own goals at work are often measured in terms of revenue, costs, and client satisfaction, where clearly defined metrics drive our behaviours. 

But does that really make us successful?

What about the other two steps in Maslow's pyramids, about self-actualization, ie what a person's full potential is and the realization of that potential? What about self transcendence, where the one self only finds its actualization in giving itself to some higher goal outside oneself, in altruism and spirituality? 

How many of us consider our potential and our altruism as success?

If you ask people who fit the conventional definition of a successful individual, many will tell you that those achievements aren't what made them feel accomplished. If you ask Richard Branson, Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Ariana Huffington, Deepak Chopra or Maya Angelou, yes money and power can help you accomplish a lot of goals and even relative well being, but each and everyone of these individuals quotes real success as being loved, being happy, liking what you do and liking how you do it, making a difference.

While we tend to think of success along two metrics — money and power — we need to add a third. Arianna Huffington said that to live the lives we truly want and deserve, and not just the lives we settle for, we need a Third Metric, a third measure of success that goes beyond the two metrics of money and power, and consists of four pillars: well-being, wisdom, wonder, and giving.

What is success? 

In the short term, it is being able to go to bed each night with your soul at peace. 

In the long term, it is about considering what you want to be said of you at your funeral.