A Year From Now Forum

In the December/January 2004 issue of My Business magazine, Rex Hammock and Shannon Scully interview several business owners and ask for their definition of success.

"Forget about Webster's definition. What's your definition of success? What's the definition that made you stay late, very late, at work last night? Or that allowed you to feel at peace going home early? As you'll discover in the following profiles, the answers to the question come in various shapes and flavors."

All the best,

JD

Hi John,

Success is a goal. Everytime we accomplished our goal either any of the big or small tasks

considered a success. Correct me if I'm wrong. But I'm having a problem here, I work in a

sloppy company.I motivated myself still in the stage of improving, but peoples around me

non-motivated, I felt boring and hard to join them.

Regards,

Andrew

 

 

Hi Andrew,

I'm sorry I missed your posting. I just now found it.

I think I know what you are feeling.

I've worked at companies such as you describe and found it difficult to relate to other employees. Perhaps that's one of the reasons I prefer to be self-employed.

Don't let the unmotivated people around you rob you of your dream and stop you from improving yourself in every way you can.

Life can be a long journey and the seeds you sow today in improving yourself may produce a great crop you can reap in the future.

All the best,

JD

Alrighty - for me success is defined by living in accordance with your values. If you live to your values you will feel satisfied, happy, fulfilled and successful at what matters most to you.

To me any goals that you set that work against your values are going to be far harder to achieve and will not count as success anyhow as they go against your deepest drives in pursuit of something that is not ringing true for you.

In my case pursuing a corporate career, from it's smallest steps to it's nth degree is all off track. It's anti-success, progress in entirely the wrong direction and ultimately not sustainable if I want to experience happiness. I need a source of income and to that end I work, but any advancement or committment to the company is beyondme, it clashes with my values. I recently turned down a job that was 'ideal' on paper and paid 20K per year more than what i do now... it became clear after they made the offer that they expected a much higher level of committment from me than i was willing to give. That they wanted someone who would give their all to the business.

Bugger that, I give my all to my LIFE not to my work! So I have taken a low paying, low interest, no progression job that is satisfied if I turn up and do acceptable work. This was a much more successful direction for me, it enables me to have the right work/life balance (or close to it) and pays almost enough to keep me contented indefinitely. I don't like my job much less love it, but it does the job that I want my job to do.

Anecdotes aside: find out your core values, identify what pushes their buttons both positively and negatively and adjust your life accordingly, that is success.

Good morning, Mogget.

That's an interesting story and I agree with you on most of it.

Identifying your core values and working towards a life that enhances them as much as you can sure sounds like success to me.

Thanks!

JD