What Are We Trying to Accomplish Anyway?

What is success? How would you define it? Happiness? Contentment? Money? Health?

The deluge of 'helpful' articles here on LinkedIn and elsewhere in the universe is staggering. "The 14 Daily Habits of the Ultra-Successful." "The 8 Things Happy People Do." "The 3 Words That are Killing Your Career," "How I Went from Broke to Millionaire in 2.5 Years" and on and on...

Each article claims to have answers for the ailments of life, panaceas to make you more successful and happier than you've ever dreamed. You are the captain of your own ship, they claim, because they heard it from their mentor who heard it from their mentor who heard it from Earl Nightingale, so it must be true.

These placating thoughts that feel good for a day and make us believe we can accomplish anything may not actually be helping us do anything. Does anyone remember the premise of "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People"? Anyone remember why Covey wrote that book? I think we've gotten so far away from the Character Ethic we've forgotten what it even is and now we're full bore in Personality Ethic.

Here's some hard truth. You cannot be anything you want to be. The universe doesn't operate that way. Do you have free will and choice over how to approach life and the decisions you make? You bet. But the universe isn't going to open up and give you whatever you want because you put it out there, even if you work hard for it. Your path might be a little different.

Will some people believe their way to success, working hard to make it happen, and then enjoy the results of that? Yes. Not all will, though. It's just not how it happens. And besides, that's not all there is.

We've got this warped sense of the purpose of life. We think it's about accumulation, wealth, and ourselves. Is it?

What if the purpose had more to do with who we become than it does what we accomplish? What if it's more about what we learn and less about what we have? What if it were about the relationships we foster?

Even those who have accomplished what by this world's standards would be considered success don't define it the way you might think. Here are some of thoughts on what success is.

Jack Odom, orthopedic spine surgeon - Being happy with that you’re doing. And feeling like you’ve done something worthwhile for humanity. You haven’t done something worthwhile for humanity if you’ve just made money. You’ve done nothing.

Jeffrey Luftig, consultant & university professor - Reaching a point in life where you’re doing exactly what you want to do, when you want to do it, in the absence of fear. Financial independence is not important for the money, it’s important so you can do what you want to do, when you want to do it, without being fearful.

Matt Given, serial entrepreneur - I don’t think I have that perspective yet. I haven’t figured out where the finish line is yet.

Heidi Ganahl, founder Camp Bow Wow - Success is loving what you do, enjoying getting up every day, jumping out of bed, being excited about life. The day I get bored or don’t enjoy what I’m doing is the day that I’m not successful.

Steve Rosdal, founder Hyde Park Jewelers - Being happy.

Vance Andrus, Principal Andrus Wagstaff Law Firm & serial entrepreneur - Being loved and receiving life affirmation from others.

Barry Hamilton, founder Red Canyon Software - I was at an EO event in Omaha with Warren Buffet a few months ago and he said, “Happiness equals excitement.” I agree with that. I think that success is being happy and excited and passionate in life.

Doug Krug, serial entrepreneur - Joy and satisfaction from what you’re doing. I went to the doctor yesterday. The receptionist in the office was an amazing woman; absolutely amazing, very successful woman. I don’t know if she realizes it, but she reframes what walking into the doctor’s office for the first time is like, and the nurse was the same. That woman is a receptionist at a doctor’s office and I’d say she’s very successful. That’s part of this [garbage] that gets attached to goals. If you don’t consider yourself successful until you make a million dollars, guess what? Good chance you’re not going to be happy when you do. There’s enough evidence of people who have substantial bank accounts who do not see themselves as being successful and they certainly aren’t happy with what they’ve got.

Shawn Kane, founder Kane Consulting - One, is my family taken care of, am I taken care of, am I happy? Two, looking at the respect of the industry that I am in; do I have the respect of my peers? I could be a billionaire and people hate me. If I were to die today, would people remember Shawn Kane? I hope so. Success is the respect that people have hopefully for me and for what I’ve built. I think it is demonstrated by my clients constantly calling me back. They utilize me, they utilize my company, they utilize my staff, so I’ve done something right.

Judith Briggs, 1-800-Got-Junk & Men in Kilts franchise owner - Success is being happy. You don’t have to have a lot of money to be successful. I wish I had a million dollars in the bank. Yeah, I do a million plus in revenue every year, but money doesn’t make people happy. Material things don’t make you happy. I’m happy with myself. I love my kids. I love my work. To me that’s happy. Plus my feet hit the floor every morning, which is a great thing.

Theresa Szczurek, co-founder Radish Systems - A combination of making a difference, contributing, and having deep, caring relationships in a way that I can support myself and my family while living with integrity. I have five overall goals in my life which define success.

Mark Sanborn, professional speaker & author - At this point in my life, success is living life in the way God intended for me to live it. He wants us to be more like Him, which means to be more Christ-like. I’m a woeful example of that, but that’s the goal. The goal isn’t to have more or even just to be more, but to be more like Him. Whether someone believes or agrees with your worldview, if you can be more like Christ, you’re going to positively impact them because His life and example were life-giving and enriching. For me the question is, “Would God be pleased with how I spend my time?”

John Simcox, founder J.C. Keepsake - First, the family. Right now my success is we have five great kids that are good people. They’re all hard workers. They have high ethics. All of our kids now have been to the temple, and I’m not putting that as a badge of honor on me, but I’m happy for them, what they are.

Bill Begal, Begal Enterprises - I fight with it all the time because sometimes I think I’m very successful and other times I think I’m not really successful. I’ve got a business, I’ve got property, and I’m able to go to Argentina for a week in the middle of the year. I’m successful because I was able to start a non-profit group with two friends. I’m successful because I have great friends.

Cynthia McKay, founder Le Gourmet Gift Baskets and CEO The McKay Group - That’s a tough one. I don’t know if I can define success because there’s so much more out there. A lot of people equate making money with success and I don’t. True success is when I sit down someday and go, “I’ve done it all. I’ve done everything in my life. Happy as a clam, I have no more ideas and that’s it for me.” That’s probably success and it’s never going to happen.

Lane Nemeth, founder Discovery Toys - Accomplishing something that you set out to do. That can be tomorrow’s idea, it could be running a $100 million business. There’s a million, trillion steps along the way so really it’s a matter of waking up in the morning and saying, “I’m going to accomplish X today” and then doing it. It makes you feel good when you accomplish what you say you’re going to do.

Bryan Willis, EVP ET Investments - I don’t think of myself as successful. I don’t even know that I’ve ever tried to define success. I know that I want to be a good father, I want to be a good husband, and I want to support my family. I guess to that extent I’m successful. Except don’t ask my wife about being a good husband or my kids about being a good father because they may not agree, but those are the things that are important to me.

Rob Emrich, serial entrepreneur & founder Mobile Majority - Success has to be a relative idea of what you can do, how much meaning you can provide for other people based on your capabilities and your capacity.

Richard Zuschlag, founder Acadian - Creating a better community with better jobs, with happy people, and being able to make a decent living. I don’t think it’s all about money. I just worked real hard and the moneymaking came by accident.

Lee Carlson, founder Carlson Associates - Taking care of your responsibilities, taking care of your family; feeding them, clothing them, and getting them started in life.

Peter Vidmar, 1984 Gold Medal Gymnast - Google John Wooden’s definition.  "Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming." You have to be realistic. I found a sport that my body was predisposed to excel in. But if there was no gymnastics at the Olympics it would be tough to say that I could make an Olympic team in some other sport. I think I had the drive, I had the determination, but I don't have the genetics. I take issue with people that say you can be anything you want to be. That's a lie. For me to say I'm going to be the greatest center in the history of the NBA, that's ridiculous. I'm 5 foot 5, I weigh 130 pounds. It's not going to happen. I can work harder than anybody on the planet, I'm never going to be that because I don't have what it takes. There's a lot of other things that I cannot do, that I will not ever be able to do. It's irresponsible to tell people you can be anything you want to be. You can't.

So, how do YOU define success?

For more insights from millionaires, Olympians, cancer survivors, recovering addicts, and other 'successful' (however you define it) people, visit www.brandonpipkin.com.