Marcel Legros - Play the Game of Life

A means to an end

Ask someone you meet today, “What does success mean to you?”, and you’ll likely be greeted with many variations of the same answer. The basic response almost always seems to be “money” - who has it, how to get it, and usually that we want more of it, a lot more, if possible. The stock response will almost certainly be followed by mumbling something like, “Didn’t win the lottery last night, so I guess I’ll be going to work tomorrow.” Really? Why is that? It hurts too much to wake at 6 a.m. and make lunches for the kids before facing a crippling traffic jam on the way to a menial dead-end job. It hurts to pay credit card debt and see no money at the end of month, never mind a secure and prosperous retirement in our ‘golden years’. The honest truth to the question of success is not how much money can be earned or won, but the path we take in which we may, or may not, become financially free.

Success superstars

If we wish to become successful ourselves, it makes sense to look at examples of people who we already consider to be, or have been, successful. A few current examples of popular successful people would be; Oprah Winfrey, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, and Bono. In the past the world has seen successes like Albert Einstein, the Wright brothers, Alexander Graham Bell, Henry Ford, Leonardo da Vinci, not to mention Jesus Christ, Gautama Buddha, and Muhammad. What makes (or made) these people tick? What did they all have in common and what can they teach us? Of course Oprah, Gates, and Branson have enormous wealth and power but did the Buddha? Jesus, the Buddha, and Muhammad dominate the spiritual landscape of today but in their lives had no wealth or fame to speak of. The rewards for today’s superstars are obvious but not so for countless thousands of other unknown, but highly successful people.

When Orville and Wilbur Wright worked tirelessly for years trying to solve ‘the flight problem’, they gained an understanding of mechanics by working with bicycles, printing presses, and motors. It led them to the belief that man could fly a heavier-than-air flying machine. Wilbur Wright spoke of the belief like this, “For some years I have been afflicted with the belief that flight is possible to man. It is possible to fly without motors, but not without knowledge and skill.” Nowhere in this statement does he speak of this being someone else’s problem, or that manned flight should be figured out by someone else with more wealth, knowledge, or connections. He speaks of being “afflicted with a belief”. It probably kept him up many nights thinking about it. He did not stop trying when he failed. He persisted until they both accomplished their goal one day, many years later on December 17, 1903 at Kitty Hawk. The Wright brothers never did achieve wealth after their remarkable achievement, but it would be ridiculous to say that they were not successful.

Work is play

What makes every great thinker, leader, inventor, or artist successful is not fame or fortune at all. Fame and fortune are one of many possible outcomes and is a benefit to one who is genuinely curious about the world they live in and the people they meet. Wealth is a by-product of that curiosity, combined with a determined, consistent effort to understand how things really are. Successful people play, they do not work. Of course there are things that need to be done to achieve a desired result but when a passionate desire to experience life through work arises, it is no longer a drudgery. The learning and the process becomes primary and the result, secondary. If it were not so, the carrot at the end of the stick would simply not be enough to sustain the long-term effort needed to get there. If you’ve ever tried to quit smoking or some other bad habit, you know that willpower doesn’t last all that long either. Long-term goals and dreams, when faced with willpower alone will die a quick and unremarkable death. Another dream ends up in your closet. Many people go to their grave wising they had done this or tried that, even the very wealthy.

What is success?

I like what Brian Tracy has to say about this. Brian studied success, and successful people for his entire adult life and become very successful along the way. His belief is that life can be distilled into seven categories that, taken as a whole make up a successful person. They are written in order of overall importance.

1.Peace of mind.

2.Health and energy.

3.Loving relationships.

4.Financial freedom.

5.Worthy goals and ideals.

6.Self-knowledge / self-understanding.

7.Self-fulfillment.

Wealth and finances are only part of what makes us whole and successful human beings. Financial freedom is halfway down the list. It is simply a link in a chain that will lead you to having more peace of mind - isn’t that what we all want? Self-fulfillment is a result of all the other steps you take towards success. Money will bring no happiness if you are hounded by troubles or physically ill. Wracked with pain or on his deathbed, a rich man will likely give all his wealth away if only to remove the suffering for a little while. Winning huge sums of money on a lottery is not always a blessing either. Many lottery winners find themselves broke and miserable only a few short years after they win. The reason for this is that there is complete lack of balance in other areas of their lives.

The success wheel

Try this… Draw a circle. Inside the circle draw seven spokes like the spokes of a bicycle wheel. Label each spoke with the categories of success as listed above, on the outside of the wheel. Rate yourself and your life situation on a scale of one to ten - the centre of the wheel being one and the outside being ten. Honesty is critical here. Connect your dots from spoke to spoke and look at what shape reveals itself. What shape is your life in? Is it well-rounded or does it look like a misshapen rock? Here is my success wheel:

My wheel is not looking so good, but I’m working on it! If your wheel (like mine) has flat spots or is completely out of whack, it becomes painfully clear what areas of your life you have been neglecting - life will not roll smoothly. It is a good pointer to where you need to start working first. It makes no sense to take a category you scored an eight and work towards a nine or ten, when you have another one that only got a two. If you do, you’re simply bringing more imbalance to your life - more suffering, less peace of mind. Work on your weaknesses. Empty space between your shape and the outside of the wheel represents untapped human potential. If you like, send me some ‘before and after’ images of your success wheel. Tell me how it changed your life for the better and any experiences you had along the way.