In normal society, asking someone how much they make is absolutely taboo. I don’t know if it’s a good thing or bad. But that’s how it is. But for some reason, the tables turn when you start a business. All of a sudden, all the inner workings of your finances, and your business are fodder for everyone’s conversations, and questions.
Strangers will emerge from the woodwork like scary zombies, and ask you extremely personal questions about your business and work life. It doesn’t seem odd anymore. And if you try to turn the question around back at them, they bristle as if you have offended them.
Okay. That’s fine. I guess, I am not human anymore. Or at least part of this society. I feel like an untouchable of sorts, an outcast, a person pushed to the edges of society, to live in scourge and filth.
How Did Money Become The Only Way To Judge Success?
Now this statement is probably going to come back and haunt me in my dreams. But I don’t think the amount of money a business makes is the ultimate way to measure its success. I know you are probably thinking – well that’s because your business ain’t making any moolah yet. Not only is that untrue, but I really truly believe that most successful businesses are those that bring the most satisfaction to their owners.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I love money and my business will make loads of the rectangular multi-coloured pieces of paper. But, I know so many millionaire business owners who are barely able to get out of a chair without help. They are popping a hundred pills a day, because they didn’t take care of their health, while they were chasing those pieces of paper.
Is that what real success amounts to? Lots of money in the bank, but no health, no balance, no relationships, and no joy.
I want it all, like my favourite poet Rainer Maria Rilke, says. I want it all.
How Much Is Self-Esteem and Self-Confidence Worth To You?
But I know that all of the learnings I have had in the past few months is worth millions. The confidence that I have established in my skills, abilities, and tech savvy, is absolutely astounding. It’s night and day to where I was before I started on this journey.
The person I have become is the person I have wanted to become for decades now.
I ask you, how much is all of this joy, happiness, satisfaction, self-efficacy, self-confidence, self-esteem, and self-actualization worth to you? To me, it is priceless. Absolutely freaking priceless.
We could not possibly put a number to it. So when you ask me, rather rudely, how much money I made in the last year, and whether, hardy har har, I’m a millionaire yet, take this pricelessness, put it in your pipe and smoke it.
Aren’t We All Drifting Anyways?
The amount of money we want always keeps on going up. We might get to one level, and then raise our bar up again. That can never be a measure of how successful we are, because if we keep on raising the bar again and again, we will never ever be successful in our eyes. That is just a miserable way to live. That is when depression begins to set in, and a general sense of bitterness.
In my humble opinion, I am successful right now. Yes, right now, at this very minute. I’m so successful right now that I don’t even know whether to pop the champagne or to do the hula dance. Perhaps, I will do both.
But if I measure success by the person I have become, and the skills I have acquired, and the experiences I have garnered, and the relationships/connections I have built, then, I am a fucking gazillionaire.
We are all drifting towards the ultimate end – death. We are all going to die. Yes, you sir, in the green fedora, you will die as well. No matter how many green fedoras you wear, you shall die. And I shall die.
All drifting towards that grim end, what will matter more? What will truly matter more?
Fuck, really, think about this question. Let it permeate your soul. Let it intermingle with all the other questions floating in your head.
What Regrets Will You Have?
I have no regrets right now. I could die tomorrow and I could solemnly swear on any holy book that I am happy to die without any regrets. Having lived my life exactly as I want till now, I’m happy to drift into the after-world with a smile on my face.
Can you say the same thing? This is so fucking important, I needed to use the f-word to emphasize it.
Have you thought about it? Can you think about it right now? For God’s sake, time is limited, and the end is near. What regrets do you have right now and how can you fix them? Fix them right now, and get on with it.
The world might end tomorrow, and we will certainly die soon. The only thing we will take with us is the assurance that we lived the life that we were meant to live without any compromises and shoulds. Did you do that? Or are you doing that right now?
If you died tomorrow, would you go with a smile on your face?
