I get a lot of emails every day, mostly from readers of my books or blog. But every now and then I get emails from individuals trying to sell something.
The other day I received an email from some “expert” who was bragging about helping an author sell 50,000 books. In the email he was trying to sell their book promotion services to authors.
My first thought was, “how do you consider 50,000 books successful?” I then deleted the email.
But it forced me to think about the definition of success. From the perspective of a new author, I suppose selling 50,000 books would be a major success. You see, your perspective affects your definition of success.
If you are eking out a living, struggling to get by, you might view anything that helps you earn more money worthy of pursuing. You might even drop $100 on some scheme that promises if you do X, Y & Z you will be able to earn an additional $500 a month. That $100 could make you $6,000 more a year. It’s worth the $100 and your time. To you that’s a successful investment.
It’s success because of where you started – broke. That $500 a month puts an end to being broke. It alters your circumstances in life.
Now consider an individual who just got a bonus for $100,000. They run across the same ad. And they think to themselves, “why would I invest $100 and my valuable time to make only an additional $6,000 a year?”
So, they ignore the ad. From their perspective, the prospect of making an additional $6,000 in exchange for $100 and their valuable time is simply not their definition of a successful investment.
Your definition of success depends on your perspective. Your perspective is determined by your current life circumstances.
Opportunities for success are all around you. Whether or not you take advantage of those opportunities depends entirely on your perspective. One man’s definition of success is often very different than another’s.
