{"id":7380,"date":"2017-05-23T14:38:48","date_gmt":"2017-05-23T21:38:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lifeandhealth.wordifysites.com\/?p=7380"},"modified":"2021-10-20T14:31:05","modified_gmt":"2021-10-20T21:31:05","slug":"what-does-success-look-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/lifestyle\/what-does-success-look-like\/147380.html","title":{"rendered":"What Does Success Look Like?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few weeks ago I spent two days talking about success with business and marketing students at my alma mater. It was an intense experience to walk the halls where I once studied and explored and dreamed toward the future I imagined ahead of me.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat does success look like?\u201d one of the bright-eyed ones asked.
\n\u201cHow did you get from sitting where we are, to where you are now? How did you go from student to eventual author, director, producer?\u201d<\/p>\n

Her unspoken question also hung in the air, \u201cHow did you accomplish this\u2026 as a woman<\/em>?\u201d
\nHer unexpressed doubt hung there equally, \u201cAnd if you<\/em> did<\/em>, then could I possibly do so too?\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been chewing on that ever since. This idea that success is something to be measured and quantified against preconceived goals. Because that\u2019s how we all start out\u2026 If I make this much money, or achieve that title, or have this type of wedding, or drive that type of car\u2026 then<\/em> I will have achieved success. I will be somebody<\/em>. But who will you be with those things? Whom do those things make you?<\/p>\n

The eager young woman asking those questions wanted very much to admire me as \u201ca success\u201d. It was oozing from her, palpable. She needed<\/strong> me to be someone she could emulate, hoping perhaps that my formulas for choice and decision-making could become hers, and in the following of them she would achieve her own \u201csuccess\u201d.<\/p>\n

I told the auditorium filled with students that success looks a lot less like a direct trajectory, and a lot more like a plate of spaghetti. Twists and turns and tunnels, and limp noodles tied into knots\u2026<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all true. Success is rarely achieved in a direct line. Anything valuable most often arrives hand in hand with an unenviable dose of heartache, failures, humiliations, and lessons badly learned. You must walk a few laps with Job, or many\u2026<\/p>\n

But as I\u2019ve pondered since, I wish I had answered her question differently.<\/p>\n

\"SUCCESS(1)\"<\/a>I wish I had told her<\/em>  she had it upside down.
\nI wish I had said<\/em> success has very little to do with things like becoming a director or producer.
\nOr being on TV.
\nOr working with uber cool clients.
\nOr publishing a book.
\nOr going back and speaking at your alma mater.<\/p>\n

Those things are fun. They look good on a resume. They complete a digital portfolio nicely.<\/p>\n

But they are not success.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Success is\u2026<\/p>\n