Why Your Definition of Success Is So Important!

What does success mean to you? If there’s one thing I can say without a shadow of a doubt – each person I have worked with over the years has their very own personalised meaning of success.

Have you thought about your journey? Have you thought about where and what the destination looks like for you? Have you taken time to really understand where it is you want to go?

—

There was once a man laying on his back in the cool grass on the bank of a large lake enjoying a spot of fishing. The sun was shining, the day was warm and the shade of a nearby tree provided the man shelter.

He was having a successful afternoon with six good size fish already caught and ready to take home for his family’s evening meal. As he felt a seventh fish take the bait he noticed a man walking towards him. As the man approached he was obviously impressed with the quality of the catch for the day and started chatting to the fisherman.

“What a great reward for a day’s work,” the visitor said to the fisherman. The fisherman responded with a smile and as he removed the newly caught prize, said “I have been fishing for nearly an hour.” The visitor was shocked that it had taken such little time to catch such a haul. “I have found the perfect bait for this exact location,” came the response to the visitor’s look of amazement.

The visitor then said “I am an entrepreneur. I assist individuals who have found the keys to high productivity to build great businesses so they can become wealthy beyond their wildest dreams – to achieve true success.”

The fisherman said “I have no need to build a great business, I enjoy what I do now!”

The visitor looked at him in complete amazement. “But you could achieve so much!” he said with a glint in his eyes.

“How would you have me build this great business?” asked the fisherman.

“Well, the first thing is we need to scale up your operation. If you are catching this many fish with one rod, imagine the trove of fish you could catch with six, or even twelve?”

“But that is too many for me to look after,” exclaimed the fisherman. “Exactly,” said the entrepreneur. “What we’d do is employ staff – this allows us to duplicate your skills and ultimately have many of you achieving what you do.”

“But won’t that mean wages, superannuation and a lot of paperwork?” responded the fisherman.

“Well, yes,” said the entrepreneur now getting a little frustrated that the fisherman was not seeing the amazing opportunity in front of him. “We can hire a book-keeper to handle all of this, and before long we’d have enough profits to buy a trawler to go to the middle of the lake closer to the full schools of fish.”

“But what would be the point of getting a trawler?” the fisherman said in exasperation.

“Really?” said the entrepreneur. “We would then be catching ten times as many fish and creating a massive profit!”

“Trawlers cost a lot of money not only to buy,” said the fisherman, “but also to maintain. I don’t have any mechanical or maintenance skills!”

The entrepreneur replied “Exactly! We will hire captain and crew along with the ship keepers. This would mean we could purchase a few ships to leverage the skill-set of these employees and bring in even more fish!”

“But what would I do if we have all these staff?” asked the fisherman.

“That’s the best part,” laughed the visitor. “Because we have lots of staff and trawlers to multiply your output, you can do whatever you want!”

The fisherman looked up at the entrepreneur who was looking back down at him with an excited anticipation painted on his face. He squinted through the beam of sunlight that speckled it’s way through the leaves of the overhanging branch, looked at the entrepreneur and said “That’s what I’m doing right now!”

Until next time,

Live Your Ultimate Life