Success
Task: Define success for yourself and your culture | Purpose: Know what is needed to succeed | Endstate: Win at all levels
We don’t see things as they are, not matter how they are shown to us. Rather we see things as we are and where we are. Things are as we perceive them to be. Success/Failure, Winning/Losing, and even Up/Down are all relative to a person’s perspective. What, then, governs our perception of success? The answer is simple. Our culture defines our worldview and our mindset thereafter. In any normal situation, the typical person has one of two options: either adopt the mindset of the of culture you are seeking to enter, or enter that culture and then seek to change the mindset of others. Either way, the dominant mindset will always win. There’s no right or wrong answer here. Adopting the culture and thus the mindset of a new place could ensure a smooth ride, little friction and possible success in relationships with others. Changing a culture, however, could prove to be a bit rough and overwhelming at times, but nevertheless the possibility for success is there.
There are very few things in this world that are more powerful than a changed mind. Altering external features will only change the way others perceive you, but not how you perceive the world. Without introspection and true cognitive renovation, you will continue to perpetuate the same situations over and over again. Challenging the way you think, however, will change your world and your future. Specifically speaking, it will change the way you view success.
In the corporate world, success is based on monetary gain. In the philanthropic arena, success is determined by helping the greatest amount of people with the fewest amount of resources. These are normal. We see these everyday. But then we enter into these ambiguous cultures in which success is in part determined by yourself, yet influenced by those around you. Academic settings such as a college or university have standards for success readily identifiable by grades and grade point averages. But there is more to it. Everyone feels it, but no one ever says it. Success to some people is dictated by the relationships they build and how many friends or enemies they make along the way. For example, you could be the smartest person in the class, but if you did nothing outside of the syllabus to network and set yourself up for the future, one could easily say that you were not successful.
If you look at somebody that's really successful, you have to remember that people are rewarded in public for what they’ve practiced for years in private. At the end of the day, your success is determined by you, based on your existential plight and challenges you must overcome in whatever situation you find yourself in. When it’s all said and done, know yourself in order to know success.
