Wednesday, July 27, 2005
What is success?
Today I was saddened at reading a profile on a well-known sports agent idolized on ESPN. Highly successful, with a $2.5 million dollar mansion in one of the ritziest neighborhoods in the world. He has one of just about every highly desired vehicle and just about every high-tech toy you can imagine.
The most talented athletes in the world have free run of his home, along with some of the most beautiful women. He especially seeks out athletes from humble backgrounds with no experience in managing money. He takes them on as clients and exposes them to the conspicuously extravagant lifestyle he lives, setting an example for what he tells them they should be living as well.
He offers them no advice when it comes managing their money—that's not his job, after all—and loans them money when they get into debt by quickly running through the millions his contract negotiations gain for them.
He gives them a shoulder to lean on as their debts grow and points the finger squarely where the blame belongs for their financial distress: the teams who are grossly underpaying his clients, as evidenced by the fact that they didn't have the money to live the extravagant lifestyle he models for them.
Then he leads the way in trying to rectify the situation by demanding that the teams tear up his clients' contracts and negotiate brand new deals with huge new bonuses that will enable his clients to pay off their loans to him as well as his fee for his services.
And the media adores this picture of success, featuring him incessantly, reporting his every proclamation. His success is the success of a leech, that attaches itself to another living creature until it sucks it dry and moves on to another host. His success is the success of a virus, that thrives in its host until it kills it.
It's sad to see this kind of "success" adored by the media. How much better it is to succeed by giving something of value to the world than by accumulating for oneself at the expense of others!
I much prefer the philosophy of Ken Evoy, the late Corey Rudl, Michael Campbell, James Martell and others who encourage web merchants to overdeliver, to give their customers more than they expect, as a way of winning loyal customers who buy from you repeatedly because they get treated well by them.
Earning a comfortable living doing something you enjoy—and bringing long-term benefit to others in the process—that's a better way to define success than all the toys in the world.
Jeff
Today I was saddened at reading a profile on a well-known sports agent idolized on ESPN. Highly successful, with a $2.5 million dollar mansion in one of the ritziest neighborhoods in the world. He has one of just about every highly desired vehicle and just about every high-tech toy you can imagine.
The most talented athletes in the world have free run of his home, along with some of the most beautiful women. He especially seeks out athletes from humble backgrounds with no experience in managing money. He takes them on as clients and exposes them to the conspicuously extravagant lifestyle he lives, setting an example for what he tells them they should be living as well.
He offers them no advice when it comes managing their money—that's not his job, after all—and loans them money when they get into debt by quickly running through the millions his contract negotiations gain for them.
He gives them a shoulder to lean on as their debts grow and points the finger squarely where the blame belongs for their financial distress: the teams who are grossly underpaying his clients, as evidenced by the fact that they didn't have the money to live the extravagant lifestyle he models for them.
Then he leads the way in trying to rectify the situation by demanding that the teams tear up his clients' contracts and negotiate brand new deals with huge new bonuses that will enable his clients to pay off their loans to him as well as his fee for his services.
And the media adores this picture of success, featuring him incessantly, reporting his every proclamation. His success is the success of a leech, that attaches itself to another living creature until it sucks it dry and moves on to another host. His success is the success of a virus, that thrives in its host until it kills it.
It's sad to see this kind of "success" adored by the media. How much better it is to succeed by giving something of value to the world than by accumulating for oneself at the expense of others!
I much prefer the philosophy of Ken Evoy, the late Corey Rudl, Michael Campbell, James Martell and others who encourage web merchants to overdeliver, to give their customers more than they expect, as a way of winning loyal customers who buy from you repeatedly because they get treated well by them.
Earning a comfortable living doing something you enjoy—and bringing long-term benefit to others in the process—that's a better way to define success than all the toys in the world.
Jeff
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