#MyMetric for Success: Life in Living Color

What does success look like to you? For most, visions of success include a paycheck large enough to accumulate wealth. Few people would argue the success of Jack Ma, for example. He’s the man behind Alibaba, noted among the world’s wealthiest individuals. But would these same people have called this man successful in his earlier years, when he was denied admission to college three times, or rejected by 30 potential employers? 

If success were as black and white as a paycheck, Mr. Ma likely would have given up long before that 30th rejection. I would venture to guess there was much more behind his metric for success – perhaps part of which was revealed by seventeen-year-old Sam Berns during a powerful message he delivered at TEDx Talk, just one month before his death from Progeria. On stage, he was driven by far more than a paycheck when he proclaimed his happiness - along with the philosophy behind it: “Be okay with what you ultimately can’t do, because there is so much that you CAN do.”

Admittedly, my personal success was once measured by dollars and possessions. Landing that first big job, buying my first car, building our first home, vacationing in exotic places. These things once told me that I was successful. But over time (I’ll attribute that to gaining wisdom rather than aging), that measuring stick began to change. I’ve learned that success is not as black and white as dollars and cents. It is something far more complex than what can be so simply measured. Success is a living color, one that looks different to each one of us, and one that changes hues as we progress through our careers. 

I learned a lot from watching the life of my “nutty professor” father-in-law from the sidelines. A scientist by trade, he was happiest when tinkering around his makeshift lab in a barn or basement, creating products ranging from cheese to rust-proof paint. By the end of his nearly nine-decade-long career as an entrepreneur, his life’s passion was no longer about making money to support his nine children; it was about making people feel good – a mission he accomplished through the creation of natural remedies to alleviate pain.

Success was measured by the hugs he received from someone who had battled psoriasis for years and finally found relief through his ointment, or the phone conversations he had with people from across the country thanking him for finally freeing them of debilitating joint pain. Success was not measured by his paycheck, and it’s a good thing. My father-in-law was a great innovator but would rather give his products away for free than to see people go without.

Those who see success in black and white might call this a business failure.

Those who understand that success is a living color naturally see the brushstrokes of vivid, bold hues throughout his life and into the lives of others. They see the bright yellows of joy, the vivid purples of riches measured in countless ways, the brilliant shades of red that exude passion, all complemented perfectly by the hues of blue that portray confidence and fulfillment, as if to say ‘I’ve achieved my life’s purpose’.

Ensuring that my world is not black and white but instead infused with living color – that’s #MyMetric for success. What’s yours?