This past weekend I was browsing through my RSS reader, and I came across an interesting post titled What is success? Impact.
The author is basically questioning what should be considered success (on a professional level), and he comes to the conclusion that success should be measured as the positive impact his work will have upon the lives of other people.
The article caught my attention because I have the exact same opinion.
Obviously I don’t think there is right or wrong as to how we define success. The term itself is a subjective thing, so what success means to you might be different from what it means to me or other people, and this is perfectly fine.
That being said, I think it is useful to discuss about such definitions, because it helps us to analyze whether or not we are moving in the right direction.
For example, most people tend to equate success with money. That is, the more money you make, the more successful you are. But under this definition one could argue that a drug dealer who makes millions of dollars annually is a very successful person. I don’t agree with this. I could give you that such drug dealer is a savvy businessman, but I wouldn’t call him successful, because the impact he has on the life of other people is actually a very negative one. The same thing could be said about online spammers, scammers and so on.
Now take Linus Torvalds as another example. He is the founder of the Linux movement, which created one of the most successful open source projects to date, and enabled millions of people to use a free and very reliable operating system. I am not sure how rich he is, but even if he was broke I would call him a successful person, because he had a huge impact on the lives of people from around the world.
Note that these things are not mutually exclusive either. In other words, it is possible to make a lot of money and have a positive impact in the lives of many people at the same time (and often times they go together). Just think about Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Larry Page and Sergei Brin.
But, I suspect that these folks were first and foremost motivated by the possibility of making something big that would impact many people. As Steve Jobs say, by the possibility of putting a dent in the universe. Sure, they were no philanthropists, so the money was welcome too, but I don’t think it was the only nor the main thing they were pursuing.
Which leads us to one question: are you working to make as much money as possible, or to make as big an impact as possible?
Interesting thread. According to me The success is the achievement of something desired, planned, or attempted. If you look at success as an end result, you will not see prosperity until you achieve your targets, goals, and objectives.
Thats excellent article. Kudos to Daniel.
I have written an article on what is success?…
In my opinion when we talk about success or successful people we mean prosperity and fame…
According to me success is the thing which I get when me myself control my mind and not when my mind controls me. It is strange but true, whenever in my life when I controls my mind I am happy and when vice versa happens I am unhappy. For me being happy means achieving success in life. So control your mind and be happy and successful in your life.
This is a very interesting post.
For me success is accomplishing goals I set for myself. Even meeting a small goal is a success. I don’t think money is an accurate measuring stick for success. Impact that has a positive effect on another is true success.
Success is byproduct of your good karma.
I think that if you are trying to make money by selling something that is only destructive to others, in other words, if you are trying to make your life good by ruining other people’s lives, that is very immoral. So it’s not only about offering free doses. It’s about the essence of their business to begin with.
I agree with you, and I don’t think that having a huge impact is necessary for success.
Drug dealers have several methods to “spark” the addiction on users. Things like giving free doses, getting young people to try and so on. That is why I think they are part of the problem too.
Eran, I would definitely consider drug dealers a problem.
A couple of thoughts…
Positive Impact is more important for me. Also considering the principle that money is only the by product of the service you provide to other people, I think the person who has positive impact and is providing useful service to other people will always have enough money.
I think of an entrepenuer I know who made it rich founding a school for professional development in film and television. The consensus I have found among attendees is that the man is a con man, a liar, that he trades in bait and switch,writing course descriptions that had nothing to do with the courses, themselves. Yet, I and others continued to go to his workshops. Why? Because he hired working pros that provided attendees with inside info and jumpstarts to their careers. Was this man a success? His efforts produced great positive impact, yet he seemed incapable of telling the truth even when the names he attracted meant he didnt need to. Oh, and he constantly disparaged those us who worked in the non profit sector as “amaturers.”
This is a great and important post but although I ALMOST agree with you, I don’t TOTALLY agree with you. Success cannot be measured by the amount of money you have made but when you gave examples of people who made an impact, it’s people who made an impact to a huge number of people.
Impact eh? I think the biggest impact is made when are efforts are not necessarily about our goals and our success.
Hi Daniel,
That was a swift comment Nabeel. I agree with you on this one. Most people sees success as equivalent to money that they earned, while there’s nothing wrong with that, but the thing is, they’re also missing on some important details of success as well.
Success is relative. I totally agree with the drug dealer story and I think a successful person is someone who is happy with what he has. I am not saying one should be sit home 24/7 and be happy with it, instead he should find peace in what he earns now and always work harder for helping others.
Very interesting topic. As a creative artist, I believe that impact on others’ lives will always be a way of defining success. However, I’d like to be financially “successful” too. I do think you can have both.
You can’t make influence if you are broke, and heavily in debt.
So money is important to fulfill at least basic needs.
I was asked this same in an interview a couple weeks ago. I was completely unprepared for it. What is success to you, and are you successful?
This is an interesting topic for discussion. Usually, I think the more money you have, the bigger impact you have, and the bigger impact you have, the more money you have. I prefer to the WIN-WIN situation.
my definition to success is personally by making as much money as i can..however, money is not the case. instead it is what money can bring that will rate my success. with money i will be able to lavish my love ones unconditionally, with money i would be able to donate to charity without any hesitation, with money, i could live the life i have always dreamed of , with money, i could live a much more independent life and possibly help people in many other ways i can.
You can never achieve any success if you never set out to achieve anything at all. And success is something you can have every single day, if you simply set out to achieve things every single day.
Yes age does play a role, as wisdom comes with the winters you go through.
I thought about connecting both things, but there are many points where they need to be separated.
I would disagree that a happy drug dealer is a successful person.
You should believe more in yourself man. Anything is possible .
I agree, people who have a great impact on the lives of other people usually have the option to make a lot of money thanks to it.
That is another good definition.
I’ve been thinking about success a lot lately as well. I think impact is a much better measure of professional success than money is. But for me, I can’t disconnect the question of professional success with the question of what makes a successful life more broadly. Where does happiness fit in? You can be a professional success without being happy, and you can be happy and unsuccessful.
I think that as we grow older, we tend to associate success with the number of people we have helped and influenced to do good. This is my belief now, but it was very different 10 or 15 years ago. Back then success meant a lot of money and material things.
In my mind it all depends on the legacy you want to leave behind. You might not consider the drug dealer successful but in his eyes, he has made it! I agree with the robot that anyone you talk to will have a percentage of these two. Being in a position where I can be a blessing to others is my definition of success. I guess that’s also why a lot of people equate money to success.
My aim is to make money… to do that, I have to provide a service and run a good site. Can’t have A without B.
My definition of success is when you feel like you have accomplished the goals you set out to do in the beginning.
Interesting point about the economic system trying to align both things.
I think that no matter who you speak with, the answer is always some percentage of both of these items. Also, those who make great amounts of money have usually made great impact by default, but not necessarily vice versa. Interesting concept.
While I admire your goal of wanting to make a positive impact on those around you, I don’t see how that can possibly be measured or evaluated.
If I am doing the what i want to do, and i am doing it just the way i want to do it, and i am consciously happy doing it, (hoping i am not doing anything wrong), then i consider myself successful.
Success is you being happy with what you do. No one else can measure your self worth but you. If that drug dealer is happy with himself and leads a happy life then he’s successful. Of course, the odds of leading a happy life while dealing drugs are pretty darn low but still. Self worth, success and happiness and are subjective things.
interesting,
I am working towards both at once – at Clickanthropy the more money we earn the greater impact our community can have in the world.
Since we cant make huge impact on others, I think its better to define our goals within our limits initially.
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Hi Daniel,
For me, I follow what John Wooden says” Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable.” The pyramid of success is great tool to keep you focus.
The impact is more important for me.
It doesn’t matter if I earn less bucks than my fellow bloggers. What matter most, to me, is the impression my work leaves !
Excellent point you raise up there Daniel.
My opinion of success is same!
If you have impact of your work on others and if this is a positive impact which changed their life forever then I would say you are the most successful person.