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I get a lot of emails every day, mostly from readers of my books, media articles or my blog.
But every now and then I get emails from someone 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 me.
Now, I’ve been very blessed in selling a lot of books. So, my first thought was, “how does this individual consider 50,000 books successful?”
I deleted the email, but it got me thinking about the definition of success.
Consider Samantha. She makes $30,000 a year and is struggling to get by. Samantha works very hard, she does a great job and her boss informs Samantha that she is getting a $500 per month raise. That additional $500 a month puts an end to Samantha’s financial struggles.
How do you think Samantha would feel about the raise? She would likely be happy, proud and feel somewhat successful, in the moment.
Now consider Paul. He is a hard-working Chief Information Officer making $1 million a year. Paul works very hard, does a great job and his boss, the CEO, informs Paul that he is getting a $500 per month raise. Paul thinks to himself that the additional $500 a month raise won’t even pay his monthly country club dues.
How do you think Paul would feel about the raise? He would probably not be happy, feel somewhat deflated and maybe unsuccessful, in the moment.
You see, your perspective affects your definition of success.
This was a reality check for me. I need to be more thankful!
Everything is relative. You can have someone making $30K per year struggle to get by and who would consider themselves broke or you can have someone making a million or more per year and still be struggling to get by. They are just broke at a higher level. Great point you make on the levels of happiness one experiences given the perspective they are coming from when assessing the impact additional income would make in relation to what income they are comparing it too. One needs to be thankful for any abundance that flows into their lives regardless of how big or small it is.