One of our greatest struggles is defining what we truly want for our life versus what our peers define as ‘the right wants’.
A way to illustrate it is Captain Willian Jones’ anecdote working at the steel mill:
Jones worked for multimillionaire Andrew Carnegie not only as an engineer but also as a manager.
He had proven himself extremely valuable for the steel mill business. If he wasn’t creating useful inventions, he was pushing to create an environment of healthy competition.
The complex role of engineer, manager and leader made him an integral part of the business, and because that, Carnegie offered to make him a partner.
But Jones declined the offer, since he didn’t want to be bothered by the business side of things.
He was very succinct about it:
“I don’t know much about business, and I don’t want to be bothered by it. But you can give me a h*ll of a big salary”.
And yes, he remained a manager… with a fat salary, just as he had suggested.
This is much more than a nice story about capitalism with a happy ending.
We can assume that becoming a partner, Jones would have been very wealthy in the long run.
But the question is, was it worth the additional stress of doing something he absolutely didn’t want?
A lot of people would say that saying no to a partnership with Carnegie was foolish.
But the real question here is, what did Jones want for himself?
I think that he had the luxury of being very clear about it. And that’s precisely what’s dangerous if you haven’t defined it by now.
How do you want to live your life? That’s a question with no easy answer.
You will be constantly exposed to the ‘right’ wants.
Exposed to the ‘right kind’ of success.
But as Earl Nightingale said a few decades ago, success is the “progressive realization of a worthy ideal”
That’s it. A very open statement that could fit any way you want.
I remember a few years ago that a friend in college, in a sudden burst of philosophical thinking, told me this:
“Jesus, can you imagine if anyone could do whatever they wanted?”
He didn’t mean about the pursuit of pleasures. He was talking about choosing a service to master.
That was more than 20 years ago and things have changed quite a bit for humanity.
Internet has been a double edged sword that can either let us find our tribe, whichever is our craft… but at the same time, pressure us into ‘the right success’.
What is it that you really want?
One way to define it is listening to your emotions.
And your emotions are constantly showing through your body language (as well as everyone else’s)
So start today downloading my book of body language tips so you can have a head start on your journey:
Much success!
Jesús Enrique Rosas
I can read your body language and write a story about it.
