Success: I Don't Think It Means What You Think It Means

We all want to be successful, I mean come on, who doesn’t. The facebook ad of the guy sitting on a beach with his laptop claiming he makes $20k per month while he travels the world, sounds nice right? But what most people don’t realize are the 100+ hour weeks for years on end that guy put in to build it. And it really doesn’t matter what his game is, real estate, social media marketing, drop-shipping, online coaching, drawing cats. Yes someone built a highly successful business drawing cats for people. He even got Mark Cuban to invest in his business.

The only reason anyone can put in that much effort without any guarantee of the outcome is passion. It might be passion to get out of debt, improve your lifestyle, not be homeless, help others, or you just love creating, building and solving problems. It really doesn’t matter, but until you find that motivating passion that drives you to work harder than you have ever worked in your life, you are going to keep failing to do what you were made to do and be who you were made to be.

This may come as a shock to you, but what if I told you that your success isn’t the same picture of success as anyone else. Mind blowing right? Well not really, but we all still tend to have this notion that success is the guy on the beach, or Mark Zuckerberg, or that rich uncle that has a new Lexus every 2 years, or just anyone that has a job and pays their bills on time. And THAT’s the point! Success differs based on our own current situation and our cognitive biases. We have literally allowed every situation in our lives dictate to us a standard for excellence and failure. This means we have years of work to undo while we rewire our brains. But what if the simplest solution is the most obvious; we accept that there will always be people more successful than us and less successful than us based on our definition of success for us. In other words when we use our own standard units of measure we will never measure up to some and we will feel really good about ourselves compared to others.

Albert Einstein is credited with the saying, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

So what is your genius? Your superpower. The thing that you do so easily and you think everyone can do this, it’s no big deal. But others are amazed at your skill and dexterity. This could be the key that unlocks your passion and leads to your success.

So how are you going to define your success? What does this look like to you? Sure, a million bucks in the bank sounds great, but then what? Let’s say you won the lottery and theoretically all your financial troubles are over, what are you going to do with the rest of your life? Spend the money on all the houses and toys you ever wanted? How fulfilled do you really think this will make you? How long can you go being overindulged before you become depressed? History tells us you would be bankrupt in 3 – 5 years but I bet the depression settles in a lot sooner than that. Ok so winning the lottery and working hard to build an empire are two vastly different things, wealthy people who are self made must have a lot more fulfillment and satisfaction in life, right? Check out this story on Forbesabout the research on depression and the uber-wealthy.

I’m not saying wealth is going to cause you to be depressed, but if that is your only focus and goal in life then you will probably never be fully satisfied. So let’s redefine success and take the wealth aspect out of the equation. What do you really want out of life? What makes you fulfilled? Healthy relationships, peace in your home, energy to do the things you enjoy, time to be creative, enough resources to give of your time, talent, and treasure to others. These are my definitions of success. Yours may be different. Take some time to really consider what makes you feel successful. It may be something you have never considered before. When you take away money as the measuring stick you may uncover a lot more ways to be successful.

With that being said, this blog is about generating money and wealth primarily through real estate. It doesn’t contradict my beliefs or motivation for success in the other areas. Money and wealth are the tools to accomplish many of the goals I have. But money won’t suddenly make your relationships better or make you a generous person. In fact money will only amplify the type of person you already are. So before you become uber-wealthy, focus on being successful in the non-monetary areas first. You may just find that your satisfaction in life increases so much that you no longer need as much wealth as you originally thought you did.

My best advice on becoming more successful: Start living your life! Try that new hobby you always wanted to try, take a class to learn a new skill just for the sake of it, take someone to lunch that you want to get to know rather than trying to make a sale, take a day off work to volunteer for an organization, (I guarantee you won’t get fired if your boss knows you are volunteering) ask someone to mentor you or offer to mentor others. You will be amazed at the opportunities and benefits that open up by doing things that are not motivated by financial gain. (I am telling myself this more than I am trying to tell anyone else.)

Then leave a comment or send me a message on here or any of my social media sites about your experience. I would love to hear how this way of living has impacted you or those around you.