“Success tends to move away from those who try to capture it and toward those who try to help others achieve it.”
—Shane Parrish, Author of the Farnum Street Blog
Image from Unsplash by Lina Trochez
What if the harder you chase success, the more elusive it becomes?
When every conversation becomes a transaction and every relationship a ladder, people can feel the distance between your interest in them and your ambition for yourself.
But something changes when you ask, “How can I help you succeed?”
You listen differently. You share more freely. You celebrate without keeping score. Your world becomes larger than your own advancement.
This isn’t a clever strategy for getting ahead. If generosity is merely ambition in disguise, have you really changed anything?
This invitation is simpler, and harder: make someone else’s progress matter.
Success may follow, or it may not. But you’ll be building something worth having either way: a life of genuine contribution.
EXERCISE:
Consider reading The Go Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann. This short business parable follows an ambitious young man who learns to shift his focus from getting to giving.
