Success and Significance Part 2

Success is often associated with people who feel they have everything they want so in that respect you could say that it is often materially based. The success may be visible to all, so in effect success means that you have added value to yourself and by relationships and association, some people around you.

However significance is when you hit the top of the Maslow needs pyramid, because you feel so comfortable and confident about your own success that you can now seek to add value to others.

Sports stars are great examples of this process in action. Some end their careers (perhaps prematurely through injury) and then fail to adapt to their new situation. They miss the previous trappings of success and often decline into a “vicious spiral” which may involve alcohol and drugs. Fortunately many others are inspired to reinvent themselves, to a new sustainable level of success, but that still leaves the “what’s next?” question.

Bill Gates (irrespective of whether you love his software!) created a massive level of success that carried with it huge financial success. In the process you can also say he provided many others with opportunity as employees and partners of Microsoft. So what did he do to? He created the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with a view to giving away a sizeable portion of their wealth to help others. Warren Buffet and more recently Richard Branson have also committed to giving away at least half of their wealth. They are doing this because they have nothing left to prove to themselves or others in the fact that they are successful businesspeople and entrepreneurs.

They are sharing the fruits of their success and are not holding on to wealth just to make sure that they qualify for the next millionaire/billionaire list.

Just a suggestion, but perhaps in order to start moving from success to significance and the desire to add value to others, that you have to:

• ·      really know your purpose in life (and we know how well they teach that in schools, colleges and the workplace)
• ·      have a strong desire and a clear vision to be more than you currently are, by growing towards your maximum potential
• ·      begin planting the seeds that will benefit others by providing them with their own means to grow ”harvests”

Significance, like success is not an overnight journey – it takes time, but it does require steadfast commitment, passion and a strong sense of purpose and direction. Becoming significant will most likely take you from a place of comfort into the great unknown, but that is what makes it challenging and exciting.

In short it is about signing up to something that is bigger than we think we are. But if we start to make the stretch, when we get to the final account we can say we truly lived, loved and made a difference.