The True Metric Of Success
What truly matters to be successful, and yet we ignore it.
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What does it take for someone to be a truly successful individual?
Is it fame?
Is it mass fortune?
Is it having a lot of subscribers and followers?
Is it having a large and successful business?
Travelling the world?
Bill Gates wrote an article reflecting on the work he did last year and one of the largest takeaways from his reflection is that age provides a great deal of perspective.
When he was in his early 20s he was focusing all of his energy into building Microsoft into the giant it is today. He poured all of his life into it to the point that he wrote this:
“Did I devote enough time to my family? Did I learn enough new things? Did I develop new friendships and deepen old ones? These would have been laughable to me when I was 25, but as I get older, they are much more meaningful.”
Here we have one of the wealthiest men in the world talking about some of the most simple things that even the poor have:
Connections. Relationships.
And yet time and again, we have moved further and further away from it.
Absolutely, thanks to social media we can connect with other individuals around the world. We can connect with people we have since lost contact with.
But that’s a double-edged sword in this situation.
Why did we lose connection with them in the first place?
Were we a bad person? Did we simply ignore them?
Deep down a lot of us will say that community matters, but how exactly are we making an effort to build it?
I know I’m not putting any effort at all. I’m a writer who chooses to live in my room. What little interaction I have is with my parents.
It feels like enough for me for now. But I can’t deny it that deep down, I’d like some better relationships and deeper connections with individuals.
