There are many ways to succeed on a short-term basis. If life were a three-day weekend, it wouldn’t be hard to know what to do, and it wouldn’t really matter any way. Life is a marathon and not a sprint.
Succeeding over the long-term is much different than becoming an overnight success. If you look behind the scenes of people who appear to be an overnight success, you will find that either their success came over many years and you weren’t aware of it until recently, or the overnight success is really not successful.
For the sake of this exploration, I will briefly synthesize my own and many other definitions of success by saying that success is the ongoing pursuit of a worthwhile goal that fits our own passions and priorities.
If you succeed at doing something because everyone else wants you to do it while ignoring your own passion, you have failed. If you have instant success that is not sustainable, you have failed. And if your success does not bring success to others, you have failed.
There is no such thing as a win/lose outcome from a long-term perspective. You can cheat someone or take advantage of them and profit on a short-term basis; but you will never have an opportunity to do business with that person again, and the seeds you have planted in that transaction will bear bitter fruit. In a win/win transaction, both parties leave as a success and look forward to repeating the process.
My friend and colleague Zig Ziglar has become renowned for saying, “You can have everything in life you want if you’ll help enough other people get what they want.” This simple little statement captures the essence of a win/win relationship. Zig’s statement causes you to instantly quit looking at your own potential success and look at the success of others.
Recently, I was negotiating the sale of many thousands of my books to a friend of mine who runs a major corporation for whom I have done a number of speeches. We discussed the price of the books, the availability of many thousands of copies, and several dozen delivery points throughout North America. I felt good about the negotiation and the resolution, and just as I was ready to conclude the deal, my friend asked a powerful question. “Is this deal good for you under the terms and conditions we have discussed?”
My friend is a shrewd businessman. He did not want to pay more money or receive fewer books, but he understands that unless we both win on this deal, there may not be another deal in the future, and that creates a lose/lose outcome for all concerned.
You cannot assume you understand what makes a relationship win/win for the other person. Unless you ask, you will simply be projecting your own goals and ambitions onto their situation.
As you go through your day today, find people and organizations whose success will make you successful, and you will begin to reap the long-term benefits of a win/win outcome.
Today’s the day!
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Jim Stovall is the president of Narrative Television Network, as well as a published author of many books including The Ultimate Gift. He is also a columnist and motivational speaker. He may be reached by e-mail at JimStovall@aol.com or by visiting www.JimStovall.com
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