PETER COHAN, INC.
I blew the mind of one of my Babson
College students this morning.
Like most people, he believes that success
is measured by how much money you
have and how much money you make. By
that measure, no single individual is the
world's most successful.
After all, Bill Gates — who has an
estimated net worth of $79 billion,
according to Forbes — probably has the
most money, but I sincerely doubt he
makes the most money every year.
That title probably goes to a hedge fund
manager. For example, Ray Dalio — who
runs the $120 billion (assets under
management) Bridgewater Associates —
pulled in a cool $3 billion in personal
earnings last year, according to Forbes.
But if you believe success means both
having the highest net worth and getting
paid the most every year, then neither
Gates nor Dalio is successful.
That's because the pursuit of the most
wealth or the highest annual income is
success only if you keep winning every
year. Otherwise, you are going to spend
time trying to figure out how you can get
to be No. 1 — rather than taking pleasure
in what you have achieved.
Simply put, unless you're top dog, the
unpleasant view never changes.
It is for this reason that somewhere along
the way, I figured out a different
definition of success — success is
controlling how you spend your time —
that blew the mind of my student this
morning.
Just to be clear: I am not declaring a vow
of poverty. In fact, I believe that for many
people, controlling how to spend their
time is the kind of success they can
achieve only after they have earned
enough money that they no longer have to
worry about paying their bills.
Many people never achieve that level of
financial security. But I do not believe
that a net worth of $80 billion is necessary
to get to the point where you can cover
your likely future obligations.
If you get there by doing what you want
to be doing and it makes you happy, then
I consider you successful.
But if you get there by working a grinding
job that pays well but makes you
miserable, then you need to stop and ask
yourself whether you should get off the
hamster wheel and figure out what you
really want to be doing with your life.
My advice to the student was to think
about what he has enjoyed doing in the
past and what has been less interesting to
him. Based on that self-assessment, I
suggested that he should make some
guesses about what he would like to do.
He should then apply three tests to those
hypotheses:
Am I passionate about the work?
Am I one of the world's best at doing
this work?
Will the market compensate me well
enough for it?
Generally, people do not know whether,
say, investment banking, consulting,
running a startup, or asset management
will satisfy all these tests.
Therefore, I advise students to seek out
informational interviews with people in
those fields. The networking practice they
get in trying to set up these interviews
will be inherently valuable.
Once they set up such interviews, I advise
them to ask people how they would
answer the three above questions.
For example, in the informational
interviews, students might ask the
following:
In your company, are there people
who are really passionate about their
work? What do they do differently
than those who are mostly there to
pay their bills?
In your field, what are the key things
that the most talented people do that
differ from the ones who are merely
competent?
Is the compensation that people
receive in this field satisfying or
frustrating? What is the difference
between people in your company who
feel fairly compensated and the rest?
If students conduct 10 to 15 such
interviews, they should be able to assess
whether they would be happy working
with people in that field.
And it would be even better for them if
those informational interviews led to
internships that would allow them to
immerse themselves more fully in those
fields.
To my mind, my students will achieve
success only when they are happy in their
work — and to do that, they must be
passionate about it, excel in their field,
and receive positive recognition from the
market.
I don't know Gates or Dalio, but it seems
to me that they control how they spend
their time — and the money is just a nice
thing that comes along with that.
Source: Business Insider
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