This debate rages back and forth but in the end everyone agrees, success is measured by accomplishment not money in the bank. Some will agree with this statement, and some will fight to the death against it. But on your death bed, how do you want to feel with the people around you? On your tombstone, how do you want to be known? You can’t beat this final argument.
Burj-Al-Arab. A great dream and Success measured by visionary accomplishment.
Money’s Worth
Everybody loves a winner unless they are the ones who cannot get a piece of your action…which are most of them. It’s true that the ones who cheer and applaud you are most likely to become a recipient of a win down the road. It need not come from you if you were so financially predisposed. People who celebrate wealth, or in this case, money will likely become wealthy with cash in hand themselves. But unfortunately for those who don’t they will grudge you your financial wealth. Now, what can you do about it? Give it all away to people you don’t like?
I hope you are beginning to see my point. The wiser spenders, even the big spenders do so with value in mind. They want to get the biggest bang for their (mega) buck. When one invests in a company or buys an investible property, it’s buy low and sell high. It’s that profit motive which is where the value is created. No one wants to feel cheated. No one wants to pay more for a lemon than they have to, much less admit they bought one. Find someone who supports charities and you’ll find that they do give generously but they also give according to what makes the most emotional sense to them as well as getting the best bang for their charity dollars.
Ask a matriarch or a patriarch on or near their death bed, how they would like to be known as or how would they like to feel with their relatives around them, you could be amazed by their responses. It is amazing what changes can occur from a total grouchy scrooge-like personality. From the love of money can come the desire to be known better than just mere cash which once wielded so much control and power to actually becoming useless numbers. It is what they feel at their end that suddenly matters. It is what they can do to feel the way they want that becomes top priority. What do they want their tombstone to say?
Is Self Worth Success?
I would agree with my mentors and say self worth comes before leading one to its measure of success.
Self worth by itself is not success. It is derived from the thoughts of grandeur and doing nothing about it except dream and well, being totally arrogant about who one is. This is not the same someone who has a dream and does not know where or who to turn to and fails at it. That is the total measure of that person’s self worth. There, I’ve just insulted a whole lot of people. But if you are, then I’m glad. Take the required action and I’ve done my job.
Everything changes when you actually do something and get into the action that will get you those dreams. Then your thoughts powered by your emotions and leading to your feelings becoming actual activity is creating that success. After accomplishing that dream anyone can say that he or she is successful.
To Measure Accomplishment
Let’s get back to money as the measure of a successful man or woman. And money is what it is it is a measure of something. If your focus is on hoarding as much money as possible to measure success then that is how you measure it. You are a billionaire with a billion dollars in cash. But however you did that, you will find yourself perhaps lacking in some other measure. Perhaps you don’t have a huge house but live modestly. Perhaps you eat canned tunas and not fresh fish. Perhaps you eat cheap GMO foods and not organic ones to save some money. Who knows? You might still be driving an old heavily polluting car instead of a new and efficient model. You’re known as the frugal or cheapskate billionaire. A stick in the mud.
But your compatriot on the other side of town lives it up and really enjoys a five diamond lifestyle with cruises, private jets, luxury cars, jewellery, kids going to the best schools and whatever else he finds fun to do. And oh, yes, he and his family seem to have friends all over the world. This billionaire is known for many other things like being a great dad and perhaps a super successful billionaire businessman. He is well respected and much sought after as advisor to the greatest businesses.
If you’ve been to Dubai in the Arab Emirates, Sheik Muhammed had the dream of turning all his petro billions into a modern super city for the continuity of his nation. And he, his sons and family will now be known for what they have done and are still accomplishing. When it was just a vision, it appeared to be quite the arrogant impossibility. Today, Dubai is a show piece for all the world to come and play. Buildings have sprung from the desert to tower over any on earth. Now, try beating that!
How would you like to be known by people around you? What will you like your tombstone to say? What is the story you are writing as you live?
