What is your definition of lasting success—freedom from financial worries? A fancy title? Widespread acclaim? The fact that a whimsical blanket is not your closest friend?
According to management experts Jerry Porras, Stewart Emery and Mark Thompson (writing recently in the University of Toronto’s Rotman business school magazine), “lasting success” can only be achieved “when three essential elements come into alignment” in life and work. As co-authors of the book Success Built to Last: Creating a Life that Matters (now out in paperback), the three men interviewed 200 people widely acknowledged to have “made a difference in their field,” including Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Jimmy Carter, and Maya Angelou.
After asking these high achievers (or “builders,” as they call them) for their definitions of success, the authors learned that “when success just means wealth, fame and power it doesn’t last and it isn’t satisfying.” They concluded that “success in the long run has less to do with finding the best idea or business model than it does with discovering what matters to us as individuals.”
So what are the “three essential elements” required for lasting success? Drumroll, please…
1. “Meaning,” as in, “What you do must matter deeply to you.”
2. A “highly developed sense of accountability, audacity, passion and responsible optimism.”
3. A knack for finding “effective ways to take action.”
It’s a pretty impressive list (I sure like that first one), especially if you believe all three need to be in the mix in order to achieve true success. Try holding it up next to your current life/work situation. How many check marks have you earned?
What a great definition of success. I have never been able to articulate it quite as well, but those three items really jibe with what I envision when I am feeling best about my work.
Three different points! that sounds a bit too complex. surly success should be easier than that?
Well,two out of three isn’t bad, is it? I think I am okay with qualities 2 and 3. I wouldn’t say that my job is doing something I deeply care about but it enables me to do things that I deeply care about. Does that count?