What does success mean to you?
The Businessman and the Fisherman
One day a fisherman was lying on a beautiful beach, with his fishing pole propped up in the sand and his solitary line cast out into the sparkling blue surf. He was enjoying the warmth of the afternoon sun and the prospect of catching a fish.
About that time, a businessman came walking down the beach, trying to relieve some of the stress of his workday. He noticed the fisherman sitting on the beach and decided to find out why this fisherman was fishing instead of working harder to make a living for himself and his family. “You aren’t going to catch many fish that way,” said the businessman to the fisherman.
“You should be working rather than lying on the beach!”
The fisherman looked up at the businessman, smiled and replied, “And what will my reward be?”
“Well, you can get bigger nets and catch more fish!” was the businessman’s answer. “And then what will my reward be?” asked the fisherman, still smiling. The businessman replied, “You will make money and you’ll be able to buy a boat, which will then result in larger catches of fish!”
“And then what will my reward be?” asked the fisherman again.
The businessman was beginning to get a little irritated with the fisherman’s questions. “You can buy a bigger boat, and hire some people to work for you!” he said.
“And then what will my reward be?” repeated the fisherman.
The businessman was getting angry. “Don’t you understand? You can build up a fleet of fishing boats, sail all over the world, and let all your employees catch fish for you!”
Once again the fisherman asked, “And then what will my reward be?”
The businessman was red with rage and shouted at the fisherman, “Don’t you understand that you can become so rich that you will never have to work for your living again! You can spend all the rest of your days sitting on this beach, looking at the sunset. You won’t have a care in the world!”
The fisherman, still smiling, looked up and said, “And what do you think I’m doing right now?”
Look up a definition of Success and you meet words like ‘achievement’, ‘fame’, ‘wealth’ and ‘accomplishment’. Our western culture views success largely in terms of material gain, of quantifiables that can be popped into a spreadsheet and sent to the tax man. Success in the west is about growth & seemingly unending expansion.
Certainly these are no bad things to aim towards; in the world we currently live in to acquire wealth is becoming more neccessary, as well as more difficult and challenging. But what happens if our definition of success is only measured by how much money we’re bringing in each month? What do we risk losing in the search for it ? And what happens to our sense of self if we feel we haven’t attained it?
Well first, I think it valuable to define success beyond the financial.
For me there are some very tangible aspects to success in my work. Success means sharing the wisdom of Yoga with as many people as possible. It means having platforms upon which my clients are actively participating with me. Success in my work means creating a safe, loving and enthusiastic community. It means helping people, truly helping them solve a problem or overcome a barrier.
Success also means having enough sleep. It means slowly sipped coffees before the day begins. It means being invigorated by my work. It means having time to be creative. Success to me is having time to look after my body & mind. It means spending time with family and friends. Success means being able to choose contentment.
Above all, success to me means equanimity. It means having a sense of self-worth that is not informed or damaged by the winds of winning or the fragmenting nature of loss, or failure.
How do we find create this equanimity? How we secure our seat within this calm abiding centre in the challenging world of work?
“Yoga is perfect evenness of mind. Seek refuge in the attitude of detachment and you will amass the wealth of spiritual awareness. Those who are motivated only by desire for the fruits of action are miserable, for they are constantly anxious about the results of what they do. When consciousness is unified, however, all vain anxiety is left behind. ” - Bhagavad Gita.
Try as we might, there is very little within our control. What is in our control is how we focus our efforts, what we focus them upon, and what we expect as a result of them. Can we pour ourselves into our work because it is meaningful and valuable to us, rather than because of what we might gain from doing so (Vairāgya)? Can we find passion in the process and dispassion in the outcome (Nishkaama Karma)? Can we create a life in which there is balance? Where we are rooted enough in our sense of self to weather the inevitable storms of business and call our rooting, our calmness, our commitment our success?
I write this all because I am bored by the narrative that anything other than money (accumulation of money to be precise) defines success because I see a world for many in which this is not possible in the ways that it used to be. I have also glimpsed a world in which we get so caught up in ‘suceeding’ that we lose the things that mean the most to us (community, time, space). That we work so hard on creating the life that we want to live that we forget to nuture the one we’re currently living.
This article isn’t to discourage you from pushing your business, from growing, expanding or even taking over the world if that is your hope or dream. Rather it is to encourage you not to lose yourself along the way. It is to remind you that success can be found in all corners of life and to pose the question; ‘if the acquisition of our goals disconnect us from the fabric of who we are, or from the pockets of life we find deep joy within, have we really succeeded at all?’