What is 'success?'

It was during the middle of week 5 that Dillon found himself in a mentoring session with a 23-year-old engineer named Bobby. The engineer had just joined Adroit Zinc as a graduate engineer trainee (GET), and was excited about achieving and succeeding in his first job out of college.

After exchanging pleasantries, Bobby asked, “Mr. Dillon, I’ve pondered this question ever since I was a teenager. It’s this: how do you define success? I’ve heard so many definitions of it, that I am confused, and I don’t mind admitting that. What determines if I’m successful? Is it my salary? Is it the recognition I achieve in my field? Is it something else?”

     “Thank you for the question, Bobby,” said Dillon, smiling. “Over the years of achieving what I believe to be meaningful success and helping others succeed, I have used a 3-point method to test what qualifies as success.”

     “First: does it benefit society? In other words, does it benefit the world in some way? Do I help build? Do I tend to the sick? Do I provide a service that doesn't corrupt society? Or does my work only benefit me – at the cost of someone else? For example, if I’m a crook or robber or criminal who’s accumulated vast wealth, clearly I’m not successful. Also, if I blindly pursue power or money without adding value to the world, trampling over others who get in the way, I’m certainly not successful.

     “Second: does it strengthen, or improve, me as a person? In other words, success is more about what I become than what I have, or achieve. Am I becoming kinder, humbler and honest? Am I forgiving? Do I give?

   “Third: am I reaching the summit of my potential? I can only reach my full potential if I am in my ‘element,’ i.e. if I’m doing the thing that I enjoy doing for the beauty of it, not solely for the end result. There is beauty in scientific research, the arts, engineering, medicine, business; in everything. If I chase success with a tunnel vision – i.e. I’m solely interested in achieving a goal – and lose sight of the beauty of the actual work, I can’t be my best, and subsequently, I can’t be successful.

     “In summary, what you do should benefit society, strengthen you as a human being, and let you reach your personal summit. You know what’s funny? If you’ll do these three things, you’ll end up becoming super-successful. It would be unlikely for the world to ignore you, but even if it did, you would be happy nevertheless from the inside, which is not such a bad result, if you think about it.”

“I like this,” said Bobby, “because this framework doesn’t depend on absolute parameters, such as whether someone is a millionaire or a CEO. Instead, it talks about maximizing one’s potential.”

He paused. And then: “But, most of the world defines success along the lines of, ‘If I get to the top of my corporation, or acquire a million dollars, I’m successful.’”

     “Absolutely,” responded Dillon, “but the majority isn’t always right. Imagine that I told you that person ‘X’ is a plumber, and person ‘Y’ is the President of a software business. It’s easy to conclude that ‘Y’ is more successful.

     “But what if I provide you the additional information that ‘X’ comes from a family with two cocaine-addicted parents who ended up in jail, and that ‘X’ is an excellent plumber and model citizen, that he provides exemplary service to customers, and that he’s attending college at night to obtain a degree? And what if I told you that ‘Y’ came from an extremely wealthy background but who nevertheless couldn’t fulfill his potential?

     “Now who’s successful and who’s not? The world’s way of identifying success is lazy; I’m suggesting that we do a little more homework before labeling someone a failure or success.

    “Vivekananda said, ‘All the men and women in any society are not of the same mind, capacity, or of the same power to do things; they must have different ideals, and we have no right to sneer at any ideal. Let everyone do the best he can for realizing his own ideal. Nor is it right that I should be judged by your standard or you by mine. The apple tree should not be judged by the standard of the oak, nor the oak by that of the apple.’”

Dillon paused, and Bobby swallowed hard. “That’s deep,” he managed after a few seconds.

“Let me cite three examples of real-life people, Bobby, and you’ll have to judge and shout out ‘successful’ or ‘unsuccessful’,” said Dillon. “Game?”

“I’m game,” responded Bobby.

“Raj is wealthy. He owns two beautiful houses and multiple cars. His dad left him a lot of money. Raj doesn’t work too hard; he believes life is meant to be enjoyed.”

“Unsuccessful!”

“Indira comes from a humble background. She isn’t highly educated, but works hard as an accountant and achieves great results. In the evenings, she takes MBA classes in order to be a finance manager and do the best she can in her field.”

“Successful!”

“Max operates a highly successful adult website. His business is growing at 100% per annum, and he’s recognized as a master in his field, as someone who’s always learning the latest in the business.”

“Unsuccessful!”

“Great job,” Dillon said. “Now, Bobby, I’ve to run along to my staff meeting, but I’ve enjoyed meeting you. See you around!”

----------------------- End -----------------------------

Dillon, the new Chief Digital Officer at Adroit Zinc, also heads the IT organization. He joined his job 5 weeks ago. The above is the 5th installment in a series of stories on Dillon's work and life.

Week 1 Adventure: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/adventures-digital-leader-week-1-amitabh-mishra/

Week 2 Adventure: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/week-2-what-digital-after-all-does-leader-do-amitabh-mishra/

Week 3 Adventure: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/1-mistake-digital-professionals-make-amitabh-mishra/

Week 4 Adventure: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/interview-mission-digital-amitabh-mishra/

Principal characters:

Dillon D’Souza – CDO (Chief Digital Officer) – 38, educated at Notre Dame University and employed in the US for 12 years prior to return to India. Family man, fitness fanatic.

Easwar Iyer – CEO (Chief Executive Officer) and Dillon’s boss – 57, head of Adroit Zinc. A nationally-recognized expert in zinc mining and processing.

Frank Garg – CFO (Chief Finance Officer) – 43, chartered account by profession. Long-timer at Adroit Zinc and its parent holding company, Metalist Assets.

Omkar Patil – COO (Chief Operations Officer) / Business Head – 41, MBA with 15 years of operational experience at metal companies. Long-timer at Adroit Zinc and Metalist Assets.

Indu Krishnan – CIO (Chief Information Officer) – 37, IT professional who’s spent her entire career with Adroit Zinc. Brilliant programmer and nerd.

Palesh Wanchoo – aka ‘Pal’ – Director of Operations – 35, 10-year veteran of Adroit Zinc, mentor to many and CEO’s Mr. Fix-it.

The company: Adroit Zinc, based in southern India, one of India’s largest manufacturing companies.