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22 August 2010
This Guest Blogger, Jara Johnson, is someone I met online. He has a new site where he's 'up to something' and that's what I'm always looking for. Please read his article and check out his site. I'd also appreciate any suggestions when you see an article that you think would benefit our followers who are all people taking themselves on, creating the life they want, with full accountability for what they've got and will get.
Success may be one of the most ambiguous terms in all of history. People spend their lives chasing it, but who can really define it? Is there a certain monetary value that once you reach, you have found success? Is it that warm fuzzy feeling that we get when we’ve accomplished something we thought we never could? The amazing thing about success is that it is very adaptable. What would be considered a failure to one person, can be considered a success to another.
Many people have labeled me with the term “successful” along with many others. As a young business and entrepreneurial prodigy, people where amazed that at the tender age of sixteen, I had people with Master’s Degrees contracted under me. However, I never got the feeling that I had achieved success. In fact my view of success was vastly different than that of others around me.
Chances are when you think about success, you think of money. That is just the way our society is wired. Yes, I did make a lot of money, but as I said before I never truly felt successful. Why, you ask; simply because it was never about the money in the first place. It is hard to explain to people the pleasure that comes with build a business with your bare hands if they are not entrepreneurs at heart. People found it difficult to believe that the pleasure of seeing my business blossom far outweighed the joy I got from each pay check.
And that brings me back to the way our society is wired. I grew up with seemingly everyone wanting to be doctors, lawyers, or engineers not because of the impact they could have on society, but because they were high demand, highly respected jobs that made a lot of money. The truth is, the most important factor that people consider when choosing a career and determining whether or not they are successful is how much money they will make. Money and success have almost become synonymous.
I have recently opened a new website called Writing for Money. The site is focused on education and equipping people so that they can start a new career as a freelance writer. The website has been a real joy because I’ve gotten to see firsthand people taking the knowledge given to them, running with it, and completely changing their lives.
The website also gives me the unique ability to interact with a lot of different of people. I get asked a lot of questions, but the question I get ask the most is “What is the secret to my success? “ It took me a while before I could answer that question. Even though I make a lot more money now than I did when I first started my business, it still doesn’t give me that satisfying feeling. It still is not the main reason why I do what I do. So I struggled trying to explain how I achieved my success to people who really only focused on success from a monetary point of view.
So how do I explain success which is very individualistic by nature to people who view success in a totally different light than me?
In my experiences, I’ve found that the best way is through explain how I didn’t fail. Success may mean different things to different people, but failure is pretty much universal. Whether it’s watching your business slowly die or just losing a state championship game, failure hits us all the same. You can see it in people’s eyes, in their posture, in their words. Success maybe a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but when you break it down to its core, success can simply be defined as ‘not failing’.
When you look at it in that light, it becomes so much easier to explain how I achieved my success. I know what I did to not fail. I know what I did to make my business prosper. A lot of people are searching for some deep life-changing answer when they ask me how they can find success. I try to make my words as eloquent as possible, but it is really simple: you just have to swim. I know it sounds like something from the film Finding Nemo, but I can’t think of any other way to explain it.
I had a partner in crime when I was sixteen, his name was Sam. We were both entrepreneurs and doing things that were amazing for people twice our age. I am now in college and have a thriving business. He has dropped out of high school and is still living with his parents. I guess most people will consider me successful and him a failure. But where did it go wrong for him?
If our goals were an island, then reaching them would be success. The problem is that there is a vast ocean separating us for our paradise. As humans when we get thrown into the ocean, we swim by instinct, it’s natural. However, for some the waves just seem too big and the island so far in the distance. There comes a moment when we are faced with the reality that we just might not reach our paradise.
I knew when Sam hit that moment. It was when his father lost his job. I can tell that Sam lost his confidence that he could swim. I could tell that he lost sight of his island and could only feel the cold water. I too faced similar situations. I was uncertain how I was going to be able to pay for college, and it seemed that my career too would come to an end. What makes a person successful? What made me successful? They keep swimming. I kept swimming.
Despite how big the waves seem to be, despite what the world throws at them they keep swimming. Because it’s very simple: if you don’t swim then you are going to sink. You are going to fail. You are going to be carried where ever the currents take you.
To wrap up this post, in my few years on this Earth this is what I believe is the best way to find success:
Reevaluate what success means to you
- Success can be so much more than just how much money you make. It is good to be financially stable and not chained by debt and bills, but generally the happiest people are the ones who find joy in the things money can’t buy. Take time to really interpret what true success means to you.
Find your island.
- You have to have a goal. There has to be a finish line. If it’s money that’s motivating you then that’s fine; If you want to make a difference in people’s lives, then that’s great; if you want more time to spend with your family then more power to you. The point is without your sights set on something you are just going to wander aimlessly. Your goals are what are going to keep you going when the waters get rough.
Pace yourself
- You don’t have to become successful overnight. Lack of patience usually ends up in discouragement. You’ve have to pace yourself so you have endurance to continue until you reach your goals.
Don’t focus on the water
- Have you ever heard the phrase don’t look down? Well don’t focus on your road blocks. That will do nothing but discourage you and distract you. Keep your eyes on the prize and keep pushing for it.
Enjoy the swim
- Life is short and you never know if you will have the opportunity to reach you goals. That’s why it’s important to enjoy working towards it. Besides, if you enjoy it, chances are you won’t give up.
Jara Johnson is a college student by day and a freelance writer by night. You can read more of his work at his website Writing For Money.
PS -- I suggest you visit Jara's site. Here's another resource just in case we find a lot of people interested in writing as a career. It's a VERY thorough course and it can be purchased and downloaded, includes video guidance and at least 10 sites are rated for freelance opportunities. Check it out here:
Earn More by Finding Freelance Writing Jobs Online