I am successful
I am Successful
I want to win and show to this world that ”I am successful.”
My organization and I are superior and have won! Of course, there are benefits. If the organization grows and makes a profit, it creates employment opportunities and benefit people associated with it.
But the core intention is that “I want to be successful.” Somehow, we have set a standard that if you win, you will make more money, get awards and others will celebrate you. So, whether we like it or not, we are in a race. From childhood studies to running an organization and creating new products, we have created a race for ourselves, and we are all in the race. From the time, when we get into schooling, we don’t even realize that we are into competition! Unknowingly we got into this competition! So, what does it mean to be successful in this competitive world? What does it mean that “I am successful“ ?
My success!
For everyone, the way we look at success may be different. Depending on our background, the meaning of success differs. It may be to become a lawyer. For someone creating a wealth of a certain amount of money is a success! Getting a certain title makes certain people successful. For someone becoming a priest is a success., but for someone doing social service is a success! For some organizations growing by a certain percentage, YoY is a success, and for some organizations making a certain percentage of profit is a success. So, success does not have a standard to say that really “I am successful.” Yet “I want to be successful.”
I Want “others” for my success!
To celebrate my success! I need someone to cheer, acknowledge, and appreciate. I want my parents, my family, managers, and peers to support me so that I become successful! In addition to this, I engage a coach for me to become highly successful. Not limited to this, I compete with others to develop my strength. Even for my daily activities, for having my food, washing clothes, and so on, I want someone to help me so that I can focus on my success. The trend is that I want to be single and sometimes stay alone to be successful in my career and independent. I want to pay my undivided attention to be successful. I don’t want my family or friends to be with me! The reason is that I want to focus on my success.
Let’s imagine when we are successful. If we don’t have people to acknowledge, appreciate, and cheer on our success, how is success going to make any difference in life?! To whom we will show our success?
The impact of “I am successful” on me!
I have sacrificed my leisure time to achieve my success. Even though I enjoy playing games and reading books, I rarely find the time to do them. Due to various reasons, I was not able to fulfil my promise to spend time with my family for many days! It’s a race, and I don’t know why I’m in it.
I don’t even think about what I am good at; that comes naturally to me! I have even forgotten what I am passionate about in my life, which inspires me. The irony is that I have become ignorant of the fact that I don’t even inspire myself or others.
Even when we hear the story of the sudden collapse of the colleagues, we just ignore it and move on with our lives, as if this is not relevant to us. Sometimes our body signals us by giving us some pain to rest or take a break! In spite of all the signals, I am so focused on myself.
At some point, I felt empty within. But to the outside world, I show that I am successful! This gives me a psychological kick. This is like having an alcohol drink, getting some short-term pleasure from it, and then getting addicted. Showing off to the external world becomes an addiction! Sometimes we are not even aware that we are addicted like this! We undergo pain within in terms of relationships with ourselves and others, compromising for money and title, but that is fine as long as I am able to show the external world that I am successful.
The great awareness
The great awareness is that we need someone to even acknowledge us and appreciate our success. No matter how big or small our success is, someone else is required to appreciate, cheer, and acknowledge us. Let us assume that we have received the promotion letter. Unfortunately, for some reason, if there is no loved one around us, how will that experience be? Is it going to be a fantastic experience? In the same way, we have seen in the business environment two shops next to each other, in one shop a roaring business, and in the other shop not much business! because, for some reason, one shop is acknowledged and the next shop is not acknowledged.
The awareness that my success is dependent on someone else! is the beginning of a new opening. It may be that our success is dependent on our parents, friends, society, and so on. But my success is dependent on others. It is not only dependent on others but also on their existence.
It is true that we are making the most of our efforts. Without our efforts, there is no success. However, the insight is that our efforts manifest as success when someone reciprocates. Unless someone makes some effort in some way for my success, our efforts are not fruitful. In that sense, our success is partly due to others as well. This is the “great awareness” of my success.
In the competing world
In the competitive world, there is a competition to win, no matter what the impact is on others. On this journey, we ignore the competitors and the people who support and cheer us. In a business environment, how many times do we really work as a team? Do we work as a team to get everyone in the team a fair raise or a promotion? How many times do we walk together with real consideration for our colleagues and strive to make someone successful? Even in our personal lives, how much consideration do we give to proving our point? Most of the time, it is “I am always right, and others are always wrong”!
This is not to make us fall into the guilty trap of thinking that I have done something wrong or that whatever we are doing is wrong. While so many advancements are happening technically, the competition is also increasing economically. When we look around us and at our own lives, there are elements of sheer competition to win. In this sheer competition, we are unaware that we are not considerate of our colleagues, parents, and people around us.
The loss we make to others
The impact of this is on our personal lives; many people lose many things, starting with relationships, health, and money, just to achieve success in our perception and in our own way! Sometimes it happens in the organization as well; we lose relationships, good people, and customers. Sometimes we come out with products with the intent of beating the competition and maintaining an oligopoly situation!
I want to win, and it may produce a win for me and a loss for others! But in reality, if we look at it very closely, the loss is not for others alone; it is for us also, which we may not openly acknowledge. But within ourselves, we know that there is pain, and we want to ignore that pain, which we know intimately. For the outside world, we may want to show that everything is well, but we know intimately only to ourselves that there is pain, and we try to enjoy the success on top of that pain, which we know is not only success but also a pain within.
The opening
The greatest awareness of my success is in others! is the opening. This opens up a new door for getting insight about the impact on others. This also opens up something within ourselves to acknowledge the pain within.
I am Successful
My great awareness is that my success is not only dependent on others but also dependent on others. When we become aware, we start looking at others and the people around us in a different way. There is a scope of consideration that rises within ourselves for others. This causes a shift in our thinking toward others. When there is consideration for others, there is an opportunity to look at ourselves, which helps in two ways: (1) It looks at the effort and pain that we undergo. When we are able to look at the pain that we undergo, it helps to reflect on what is really required and move from a point of proving ourselves to a point of enjoying what we do! (2) It helps to look at what kind of impact we make on others. It may help us to really look at other people’s pain! and helps us come out of the guilt trap that we have!
The new opening towards “Our success is in others “
Any business or system has to survive and grow on its maturate path !. When I mean the natural path, organizations and businesses continuously change, whether in a subtle manner or in a visible manner. Depending on the environment and other factors, a business has its own life cycle. With the new opening, the mindset of the team changes from being individualist, or “I win” to “we win or we are both dependent on each other”. This creates a new kind of relationship within the team. This will lead to more team-centric activities. Instead of individual incentives, the incentive will be for the entire team!. There are some upsides and downsides, however, these intricacies can be handled. The key aspect is dwelling into the insight of “Mutual success” , which will potentially move from competition to co-existence! Co-existing leads to having
- Shared values
- Shared resources
- Mutual trust
- Freedom
The mutual trust takes the relationship and bonding within the team to a better level! We are not constrained by what we don’t have; rather, the shift happens based on what we have!
A new kind of innovation
Organizations that are seriously competing with each other may tend to collaborate more. For example, Printer manufacturers sell IP (intellectual property rights) to their competitors. These kinds of changes will try to accelerate the rate of innovation with fewer resources.
These kinds of changes have a direct impact on society. When companies effectively collaborate in the food supply chain, this can help to utilize the available foods. As per UN information, the food insecurity problem jumped to about 345 million people globally. We know that so much food is getting wasted across the globe for so many reasons! We can avoid so much food, and this surplus can be better utilized to address global food insecurity!
These kinds of collaboration and coexistence may sound idealistic, but if we unlock the value chain of a social problem, we can see that every organization delivers value in some part of the value chain. Depending on the areas the organizations choose, they deliver value. Some focus on technological strength or business consulting, while others may be in manufacturing or transportation. The more these kinds of collaborations happen, the healthier the competition becomes.
There are some well-known alliances, like Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi and Sony-Honda. Another notable example is a company called “Preferred Networks” in Japan. It is an AI company. Many Japanese companies in diverse fields have invested, including companies like Toyota, Hitachi, Mizuho, etc. These collaborations and investments help to bring various strengths together and address society’s needs in a more collaborative manner.
As our realization deepens that our success depends on others as well and that our success is in others, in the midst of competition, the success process shifts to more collaboration, co-existence, and win-win situations. Eventually, we will evolve and contribute to better happiness and peace!
You may be interested in this as well https://www.isacnewton.com/success-that-fails/
