In running my own businesses and personal business coaching, I get asked about my understanding of success. Success in small business and life has many components.
One of the most important has to do with what you are carrying inside of you. I will return to the idea of what you are carrying at the end of this post.
I like what Warren Buffett once said when asked about success and happiness. “Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.” I think most of us would agree that success is certainly getting what you want.
At the same time, if you are not happy with what you get you are not going to feel good and full of energy. You may be successful in accomplishing something but in some way you don’t feel good about it which detracts from your success.
For Warren Buffett it appears that true success is getting what you want and being happy about what you get. As you go through business and life ask yourself what am I experiencing? And, if you are, are you happy about it?
Interestingly, there are many people who are successful in the business sense of the word, yet they are not happy. Very often I find that these people are carrying something from their past. In fact, it could be anger, resentment or a challenge by someone that they couldn’t do something.
They end up using this as the fuel to propel them to greater achievement. Yet, when they arrive, they are not happy. They aren’t happy because they are carrying that anger or resentment with them. It ends up diminishing them and their accomplishments.
I had a client who started a small business and became very successful. His father had always told him he would never amount to anything. He used his father’s belief and his anger with it to fuel his success.
Somehow, as he experienced more growth and profit, his anger and unhappiness only increased. How come? He had never defined success for himself. He had carried his father’s negative belief to drive him. Yet, since he had no definition of a successful outcome, he kept pushing himself more and more to where he was in danger of burning out.
His business started to head downward. He didn’t understand what was happening. He had proved to his father that he was wrong. It wasn’t until he realized that his problem was holding onto his anger about his father that he started to make improvement.
He had been letting someone else’s negative belief drive his business growth. Yet, he had never designed what success looked like for himself. When he understood that until he let go of this anger that he would be in a constant state of dissatisfaction, regardless of how well he did, did he start to move toward greater happiness and enjoy the process of growth and fulfillment.
Two key points to take away from this are:
- Have a clear definition of what success is for you.
- If anger or resentment is your driver, you must let it go.
When you do these two things you will be carrying a positive view of success with you. It is important to eliminate anger and resentment from the past that is driving you.
And, when you do this you will be in a position to experience what Warren Buffett said. “Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.”
What are your thoughts on success in business and life?
