I came across an interesting take on character and success this week, and wanted to share it with you. John Bogle (founder of Vanguard Mutual Fund Group) has written a new book called Enough: True Measures of Money, Business and Life in which he laments that we’ve created a culture where greed is good and our heroes are people who have achieved outsized success (notably measured by the size of their salary/house/cars, etc). He raises an interesting question in the “life” section of the book – “what are the things by which we should measure our lives?” Bogle goes on to write: “we focus too much on things and not enough on the intangibles that make the things worthwhile: too much on success, and not enough on character, without which success is meaningless.” Wow, now that’s a quote to file away for a future teachable moment!
All of which got me to thinking about the relationship between success and character, and how things have changed down through the years. In my grandfather’s day, you couldn’t be considered a success if you didn’t have character; no matter how much money you had or how big your farm was… if you weren’t a “good man” (my grandfather’s simple assessment of character), it didn’t mean squat. No character, no success – at least in grandpa’s eyes.
Today, it seems we celebrate success in all kinds of ways, and plenty of people who have questionable character still get to climb the pedestal of success. Think of sports stars who have a rap sheet as long as your arm – as long as they’re still on the court or the field, a lot of people still consider them “successful”. How about captains of industry who lead from a questionable set of ethics and values? Plenty of people would consider them “successful” even as they pull the rip cord on a lucrative severance package.
Since ultimately we all decide for ourselves what success looks like, I think I’m going back to grandpa’s way of measuring success. If you’re honest, thoughtful, kind, trustworthy, hard-working and values driven, I’m going to call that success. I don’t care what you’re doing for a living, how much money you make, or what size house you live in… if you’ve got strong character, I’m going to start overweighting that in my personal assessment of success. Sure, it’s great to have both… but I’d rather have character than all the money and possessions that represent the modern definition of success. After all, you can’t buy character…
Comments
I think success has come to be connoted by fame and power. Power to get and do what you want at an individual level. The more famous you are, in fact the more notorious you are, the more attention you command. And that commanding of attention is easily parlayed by a media hungry society into leverage. Why is reality TV so popular? Because all it takes is a look and an angle to be successful...you don't actually have to have done anything worth recognizing. Paris Hilton will never have to work a day in her life, and many people will consider her to be rich and successful. But what has she ever really done? She's just a prominent example of this -- there are many others.
Perhaps the most important thing is that we learn to view success as something we judge in our own eyes, or in the eyes of those closest to us. It's not something to be judged through the lens of popular opinion. This way character counts more.
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