#success #FleetingSuccess #TemporarySuccess #fortune #failure
Today’s success is tomorrow’s failure.
Or, so it seems that way.
We can all recall some person, entity, corporation etc. that was a huge success, but now is failing.
Ken Fisher, founder of Fisher Investments, took on this topic in a column for USA Today. It was also published Feb. 4, 2019, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The most recent example Fisher cites is Sears, America’s biggest retailer 50 years ago that is now all but dissolved.
He also talks about lottery winners upon whom the “curse” hits, and they are broke and miserable years later. That seems less like a curse, and more like a lack of personal wisdom or common sense.
In today’s world, success is indeed fleeting. The world is changing at such a rapid pace that the latest “big thing” is pushed out almost immediately by “the next big thing.”
American companies, as an example, in many cases can’t see the next big thing coming. Or, if they can, cannot gear up fast enough to latch onto it. Or, if they are fortunate enough to foresee it, latch onto it too soon, and suffer a period of stagnation awaiting the growth that is to come.
And, as fortune would have it, that “thing” the company foresaw and geared up for is soon displaced by something else.
Decades ago, when Sears reigned supreme in retail, progress didn’t move as quickly. Online shopping was not even a twinkle in some inventor’s eye. The Big 3 automakers churned out big, gas-guzzling cars until, well, foreign economy cars began to displace them. Who knew at the time that electric and self-driving vehicles were just down the road?
Yes, success is fleeting. But personal success doesn’t have to be. Instead of waiting to be part of “the next big thing,” work hard, save some of what you earn every week, sock it away, invest properly as your nest egg builds and move into your elder years without worry.
Easier said than done? Perhaps. But it may hinge on the life decisions you make, large and small, every day.
Think before you spend. What you don’t spend you can save.
Also, don’t presume the situation you may have now will stay the same, or improve. Remember, your employer may be looking for the next big thing and may or may not find it. Or, they may find it too late. Or, they may not change fast enough.
In any case, you, as the employee, will be affected, and usually not for your betterment.
Therefore, you must create your own success. How? There are many ways out there for a person to spend a few, off-work, part-time hours a week creating a potential stream of income that will enable him or her to roll with the punches at work with much more ease. You just have to be willing to look at new ideas that may be presented to you.
If you are willing to check out one of the best such vehicles, message me.
Fisher talks about making yourself indispensible to your employer. Even the most indispensible people get reorganized, laid off or their job changes to an untenable degree.
It may be better to work at your job, and look for other ways to ensure your own success and, perhaps, the success of those willing to join you.
Peter
Tag Archives: failure
RISK IS A GREAT TEACHER
#risk #failure
We have to start life somewhere.
When we do, our relationship with the future is, well, complicated.
Kate O’Neill, founder and principal of KO Insights, discussed this idea in a May 11, 2014, column in The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville.
O’Neill discussed a project she had worked on for a large firm. One of the executives asked her how long a particular feature would take. She told him eight months. He asked how sure she was in that projection. She answered, “70 percent.” He told her that the longer it takes to get something done, the more risk there is and the less certain we can be about it.
The lesson: “Every day could be your last,” O’Neill writes. “Whether it is or not, you can take intentional, meaningful risks today to build the future you might get to enjoy.”
We hear a lot of talk today about uncertainty, as if forgetting the old adage that the only things certain are death and taxes. Part of the uncertainty talk is about taxes, and the fear of rising taxes is keeping some potential employers from expanding, so they say.
No one can know what will come next, but it should never stop us from acting. If you know you have something good, go for it. If you are unsure that what you have is good, then it may be best to stop, think and evaluate. How can I make this idea that I THINK might be good a little clearer to me?
Fear, sometimes irrational fear, can sometimes prevent us from doing something that would be good for us. Don’t let fear, particularly irrational fear, stop you.
Don’t blow something off because you THINK you know it may hurt you, before determining for certain that it will. In other words, standing in front of a moving train certainly could hurt you, so don’t do it. But examining a new business venture, or interviewing for a job that you may not think you can do may benefit you. The worst that can happen is failure that you are certain to learn from. The best that could happen is a very positive life-changing experience.
You feel great when you’re “in the zone.” But if that zone is a comfort zone, be wary. The comfort could disappear, then what?
O’Neill writes that our complicated relationship with the future can make us live our days in a balance of hope and impatience. Have you ever told your (pick one: parents, spouse, teachers) that you are onto something big, and they ask you when you expect to achieve success? Though you would like it to be tomorrow, success often doesn’t come quickly. You may have an idea of a perfect time, but that perfect time may come and go. If you know what you have, and what you are doing, are good, don’t give up because your predicted timing has come and gone. As O’Neill says: “try, fail, learn adjust. Try, succeed, learn, adjust. Then, try, fail, learn, adjust” etc.
If you are open to looking for something that could give you the future you want, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. You will see how others are living their dreams, and how you could, too.
If you fear uncertainty, learn that uncertainty is a way of life. But don’t avoid positive action because you fear the uncertainty. Take, as O’Neill calls them, meaningful risks. Step outside the comfort zone if the comfort has disappeared. You will survive. You could thrive, if you maintain the drive. Forget the fret. It wastes energy.
You may not know the perfect time, but it is out there if you keep looking for it.
Peter