Rick Torreson contrasts personal success with significance, drawing on John Wooden, Maya Angelou, and Stephen Covey to argue that true impact comes from purpose-driven legacy, not just individual achievement. He walks through clarifying your vision and core values, then challenges you with practical questions about the difference between the two.
Hey, my friends, welcome back. Great to be with you again today. I'm looking forward to sharing with you today a little bit about the difference between success and significance. How do you define success? You know, it's probably different for all of us, but our good friend Merrian Webster, she defined success as the fact of getting or achieving wealth, respect or fame. I believe it was legendary basketball coach John Wooden that defined success as a piece of mind which is the direct result of self satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you're capable of being. Zappos CEO Tony Tsai, he said success is about living in accordance with your values. In Maya Angelou, she believes success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it. And popular author and speaker Stephen Covey said that success is deeply individual. These are all great definitions and I'm sure you could add your own definition to the list. And as I read through these and dozens of others, there was one thing that stood out in every definition. Did you catch it? They're all about the individual. They're about me and are measured in the present. It's about personal success that's defined by personal feelings, emotions and accomplishments. Now or within my lifetime. Now let me be clear. There's nothing wrong with that. I'm all about living a successful life, setting goals and objectives and reaching them. And I think all of you who are watching or listening and are a part of this leadership community, you'd agree, you want to be successful. We all do. Churchill said this success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm. So what does success look like for you? If you don't know what success looks like, how will you know when you've achieved it? How would you finish this statement? I will be a success when I do. You have a vision for success. When I ask this, I'm talking about something more than some thoughts and ideas that are only found in your head, right? When you think about what success looks like in your life, how limited or grand is that picture that you paint for yourself? If you accomplish success and can truly say, I am successful, what's that going to look like? And if you achieve success, does that mean you're done? There's nothing left to do in life? Of course not. That's silly. The challenge with the definition of success, as we have suggested, is that it's never ending. I never arrive unless I quit, retire or die. And then success becomes past tense. He was successful, she was successful. Our success dies with us, ultimately only serving us. See, I believe success is important and we should all have a vision for what success looks like and plan to achieve it. But I also believe that there is something greater than simply success that ends with our lives. True success is more than just achieving an objective. True success is always tied to purpose. Our why. Success, to me is when you know your purpose and you grow in your purpose. But I believe, and it is why I do what I do, that we were all created for something more than success. I believe we were created to live a life of significance. So what's the difference? I'm glad you asked. If I define success as knowing your purpose and growing in your purpose, then to me, significance comes when you sow your purpose. A life of significance comes into play when we start talking about becoming a transformational leader, which is another topic for another time. John Maxwell says this about a life of significance. He says working hard to be a transformational leader, engaging your team, adding value to others, encouraging people to reach a higher level of morality are all qualities that can lead to a significant life. I believe this. We can live a successful life without having significance. But when we achieve significance, we will always be successful. See, success as we demonstrated by the definition is all about me. Significance is all about we. John Maxwell again says that success is when I add value to myself. Significance is when I add value to others. I love that significance lives on long after we are gone. It's not what we did, but who we were and the impact and legacy we left on the relationships and the world around us. One of the challenges with living a life of significance is that it always comes out of our life's vision and our core values. But what I've found in so many leaders is that their life vision, their core values, they're not very clear or for some, they don't exist at all. Most all of my executive coaching and the sewing in that I do begins with clarifying personal vision and values. In fact, I've created an E book in a school around helping people create their roadmap to significance. You know, as we close, Let me quickly share two things that are critical if we want to move from success to significance. The first is that the road to significance begins with a belief that there must be more to life than power and money and it can only be obtained outside of myself. It's bigger than me. Selfish people seldom find significance. The second is the road to significance is larger than life. Success ends when I die. Significance is something that lives on after we die, and it's only found in how we value others. If I only pursue success, my joy is the result of my success. If I pursue significance, my joy is the result of of others success greater than myself. Now, here's your challenge for the week. If you choose to accept it, answer these three questions. Whose life are you adding value to? Whose life do you desire to add value to and how are you going to do it? How will you add value to someone this week? Do you have their face, a picture, their name in mind? Go do it. So thanks for sharing your time with me today. If you're finding value in these messages, help us grow the community. Share this message with a friend. So until next time, I'm Rick Torreson, and I'm believing your best is yet to come.
