We tend to see success as a kind of personal victory, as something we need to achieve so that others can understand that we are already making more money or that we have reached a certain level of power and authority.
The truth about success is a little more complicated.
Once you achieve something significant and manage to stay on top for a longer period, such as starting a company or reaching a leadership position in the company you have worked for for years, you get a temporary sense of satisfaction and satisfaction. In short, you feel really happy with your life and what you have achieved. However, personal success is often at the expense of the people around you – your relatives and friends. Moreover, very often it is not as fulfilling and meaningful as you expect. The reason for this is several myths about power and success, which create in us a misconception about their effect on our lives. Here are some of the most common:
Money brings happiness
Let’s start with perhaps the most basic myth in the series. Although this is a mantra repeated by many of the richest people on the planet and the most successful entrepreneurs, the most valuable experiences in life usually have nothing to do with money and wealth. You may not agree with this assessment, but it is best to ask a parent who has watched his child grow and become a man or woman, a person who has managed to find his life partner and for many years both are inseparable, or someone who has decided to dedicate themselves to the fight against poverty and help as many disadvantaged people as possible. The chances of some of these people telling you that money brings happiness are not very high. In the long run, our relationships with people are the things that can give meaning to our lives and make us happy.
One feels better when one is more successful than others
I believed that my success was the most important thing I should strive for. I thought that if one day I could climb to the top of the corporate ladder and show everyone else that I had succeeded in life, I would finally find meaning and satisfaction in what I was doing. After a while, however, I realized that my success did not make me feel as good as when I saw my team break down barriers and achieve even the impossible. The truth is that I am currently in a period of my life in which the idea of personal and professional success has completely lost its charm. Ultimately, an excessive focus on the ego leads to ignoring the neglect of the world around us.
Power is the ultimate sign of success
People who start their own business or reach a senior management position in the company they work for can confirm that power does not bring the satisfaction you expect from it. Honestly, the things a person goes through to get it are often not worth it. Stress and strain, broken friendships and relationships, and lost time you have not spent with your children cannot be compensated by a sense of power. When you are on your deathbed, you will not remember the position you reached in your career. The things you will think about at this point are how you raised your children, how you helped the people around you, and how you treated your partner.
The others have to fail for me to be successful
The interesting thing about personal success is that in many cases it requires you to break a few eggs to make an omelet. However, personal success is neither the only type of success nor the most satisfactory. The feeling a person feels when he can share his success with his team cannot be compared to anything else.
Success is eternal
This is perhaps the biggest misconception listed so far. Even if it seems that some are on top and that there is no way for him to fall from it, it does not mean that this person’s life is not full of failures, losses, and disappointments. These things are an integral part of human nature, no matter how successful you are. Sooner or later a person falls from the top, the question is whether there will be people around you to catch you.
