Don’t Seek Success, Seek Value
Seeking success is good, but not better when compared to seeking value. What success are you seeking in your life? Is it the perfect marriage? Do you want to get a promotion at your workplace? In fact, you have been told the sky is the limit. Right? I’m not disputing the saying, but here is a thought: don’t seek success, seek value.
In life, we pay for value. Nothing more, nothing less. Whether it is a product or service, you use it not because of anything but the value you get from it.
So, lets take a deeper dive and find out why we should seek for value and not success.
4 Reasons You Should Seek Value and Not Success
1. You Change Lives by the New You
Think about it for a second. What? Life before Facebook. Social media was unheard of. You wouldn’t imagine in your wildest dreams sharing your photo over the world save for pen pals.
There is nothing so satisfying like being an agent of change or transformation in the lives of other people. You don’t have to invent Facebook like Mark. Light kind-hearted activities like feeding the hungry, giving an attentive ear make a lot of difference in peoples’ lives.
Similarly, in your workplace rather than chasing the success of getting a promotion, how about you focus on seeking and adding value to your team? Ask yourself what you could do better to improve your team’s performance.
By serving others, you tie yourself less to your goals and aspirations. You pay more on the value you are bringing to society. This builds you in the long run.
Your way to greatness is by serving others and adding value to their lives. However, amid all these, also pay attention to how you are growing in your life.
2. It’s Value that Brings you Success and not Vice versa
We always see success all around us and you can’t deny it. Whether it’s someone driving your dream car or having a fat paycheck.
Someone is running a successful business that is flourishing. You wish you could pull off something like that too. And so, clearly, our definition of success comes from what we admire or what someone is doing successfully in our space.
However, in most cases, this serves to hurt you because you are trying to project a journey or a milestone that isn’t yours. Put another way, you are trying to be the person who created that success. You and I know it’s a wild goose chase you are up to.
Comparison is the thief of joy. And so when you compare yourself with others, it leaves you empty and disappointed.
On the flip side, don’t seek success, seek value, and provide it to others. The truly successful people are those who contribute value to others. They don’t accumulate glory for others but want to see others succeed as well.
If you have a brand that is giving back to the community, people are more likely to value you and appreciate your efforts. Moreso, they will trust your brand. They will support you and join you in your value addition efforts.
That’s exactly how you build your success. You don’t seek success; you seek value and add it to the lives of other people.
When you seek value, you will begin giving that value to others. In the process, you will change, growing and building your brand. And that will be your success.
I work for a nonprofit in Kenya by the name One Acre Fund. It began as a small social enterprise serving 38 farmers in Kenya. Today, it has spread its program across 6 countries. The Kenya program alone serves 440,000 farmers.
3. You Build an Abundant Mindset
In most cases, we always focus on ourselves. We focus on how we can take care of our daily minor problems but forget to examine our mindset.
Even so, it’s easier for you to build an abundant mindset by focusing on others. Because by helping others, your mind will begin noticing that there is the value you can offer people.
You, therefore,, start appreciating yourself for what you can do. The joy you give to others will refresh you every day and put in you in abundant disposition.
4. Value Lasts Success is Temporal
Let’s say you are successful, right? You have no problem paying the bills; you got the money. Going for vacations is not an issue of at what cost it’s about when.
But if you were to die today, all the mega lifestyle disappears. Conversely, you could run a non-profit that feeds the hunger-stricken. The contrast is clear right away.
Success dies on the day you die
The former is having the best time of his life, while the latter is changing lives.
What always lingers for long after we die is the value we offered and not the sleek machines we drove.
Therefore, get out there. Do an act of kindness, or support a social course. People rarely forget your acts of kindness. Don’t seek success, seek value.
Icons of Value in the World
The world’s greatest are not remembered because of their successes, but because of their value. Check this quick rundown of people valuable in the world.
Bill Gates -Founded Microsoft
Mark Zuckerberg – Facebook
Andrew Youn – One Acre Fund
Lewis Brown – Motivational speaker
These people are not just successful out of the blue, but they sought after a value of over the years; which made them the successful figures they are today.
Bill Gates’ obsession with computers did not begin today.
If you have been seeking success all this long! Stop in your tracks right now and change what you seek after for value. Success is short-lived, but the value will never be archaic.
You want to be that person people won’t fail to mention at an important meeting or event because of your value. With value, you can’t afford to be ignored?
Bottom Line
Seek to be a person of value and not a person of success. This begins at finding a skill or carving out a niche you can be good at. A jack of all trades was never a master at anything. Besides, your simple acts of kindness can also make you a person of value.
