Success vs. Significance
Which are you living in?
Success vs. Significance
There’s nothing wrong with pursuing success. In fact, the best leaders often do focus on creating successes for themselves, their people, and their organizations.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with success.
But success is fleeting.
The problem I have with success is that if success is what you focus on, it creates a hungry beast that you have to continue feeding every day. And that can result in chasing the wrong things.
Often, success is equated with money, status, achievements, and the accumulation of things.
In my day job I build and grow marketing agencies that serve the nonprofit sector. In the last 10 years I’ve done this three times. And over those years, I’ve been very successful in this work. Especially if you just look at the business insights.
For example, I’ve lead teams that have sold over $60 million in services in the last decade, while building some of the most talented marketing and fundraising teams in the same period.
But the problem with this is that what I did yesterday doesn’t really matter. Sales and business growth are cool, but they’re not significant, ultimately.
It’s a hard lesson to learn, but when we shift our focus from success to significance, our lives change dramatically.
Success is almost entirely self-focused, while Significance is about doing things that create value and impact beyond yourself.
Significance, by comparison to success, is about meaning, legacy, and the impact you have on others.
For me, I believe I’m called to two things in this world. First, to develop the next generation of leaders. And second, to help end as much suffering here on earth as possible.
Last year I went to Asia with a ministry partner and was able to live in those areas of significance.
Here are some of the things that created significance in my life because of that trip…
I met this young boy whose mother is afflicted with leprosy and forced to live in an excluded colony with others who have been diagnosed with the disease. While he doesn’t have leprosy, according to custom he’s never allowed to leave this community. He is destined to continue living this secluded, excluded life. But in spite of that, he is full of joy and resilience and brightness that often we don’t even see in children here in the U.S. who aren’t dealing with anything as significant.
In that same community, I had the opportunity to share a word of blessing from scripture with several dozen members of the community who are living with the scourge of leprosy and shunned from the rest of the world. It was an amazing blessing to have the opportunity to worship with them, encourage them, and share a message of hope with them in the midst of their suffering.
In another community we had the opportunity to celebrate the life-giving power of clean water in an area where water-borne illness kills thousands every year. This simple bio-filtration system can purify water for an entire family for less than $100. Whether it’s a filtration system like this or a fully installed clean water well, the ability to provide clean water and hope for a community — for moms and dads who have struggled to keep their children and families from becoming sick or dying simply because they lacked access to clean water…that’s significant.
I’m not telling you that you have to go thousands of miles away and work in a place like this to achieve significance. That’s not the point of this story. This is simply an example of how I’m choosing to focus on significance in my life.
You can shift from success to significance in simple, yet impactful ways in your life without ever having to leave the comfort of your own community.
Here are some simple ways to pursue significance over success:
Identify your greater purpose — your life’s mission
Challenge yourself to define what you want to be remembered for when you’re gone, and begin to invest yourself more in that than hitting your annual numbers
Pour into others through mentorship and engagement to develop other leaders and help them understand the distinction between success and significance for themselves
Use your influence to serve others and create positive change in the world
Launch and pursue opportunities for legacy-building initiatives that will outlast your own life.
Don’t be shy about talking about your values, your principles, and why they’re important to you.
Becoming a Disciplined Leader
Each of us has the opportunity to lead from wherever we are. You don’t have to have the title to lead. In fact, some of the best leaders I know are people who lead from the middle of organizations every day.
Before you can lead others effectively, you need to be able to lead yourself well.
And that means you need to become a disciplined leader.
But how do you do this?
Develop and follow your values and priorities
Have a disciplined lifestyle (i.e., do the hard things, even when you don’t want to)
Challenge your excuses instead of letting them define you
Withold rewards until you finish the job (i.e., “Coffee is for closers!”)
Stay focused on the results
Creating a Culture of Accountability
Take the 90-Day Leader’s Journey!
If you want to become a leader of significant impact, you need to take the 90-Day Leader’s Journey. In this 90-day email course I’ll share with you 90 key insights on leadership Character, Culture, and Competence that I use to train leadership teams in professional service firms every day — and that you can use to accelerate your own leadership impact!
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