That's really unhealthy, you need to get to a place where the thoughts and actions of others don't influence your emotions. Easier said than done but embracing the opposite is a recipe for disapointment

It sounds nice in a Hallmark card. We all know in corporate america if you've not got one foot waiting to trip your competitor i.e. coworker then you might as well have your other foot out the door.

If you work in a place like that, maybe you should be looking for the door.
-Chris

To me it's happiness. And the key to that, as Cheryl Crow says... "It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you've got."

I do some freelance accounting work. Let me tell you there are a lot of people who would be considered successful by our mixed up consumer society, but a lot of these folks are truly living right on the edge of collapse in many ways. I've seen their bank account statements, their credit card statements, and their mortgage statements. Holy cow! Don't confuse being in the possession of stuff with success.

BIG plus one there...like I said on the "when is it enough" thread the other day, "critical mass", the amount of money and "stuff" needed to live happily without working is different for everyone. Success is an individual thing, an individual definition.

Very true! What'ya gonna do?
I doubt very many people would ever trade their position with mine given all the facts. That's why they're where they are and I'm where I am? Fact is we're "ALL" right where we want to be.

My accountants work for me. I don't take advise from them and if they try to give me too much advise, I fire them. YOU'RE FIRED! aka Trump; ha, ha. Accountants, Banks, IRS, etc.; they see what I want them to see, that's it.

100 years ago, a guy had a house with a white picket fence, nice horse and buggy, nice family; well you knew he was successful. Today, no chance you're gonna tell by the "stuff" he has; you'll have to dig a little further. How does he treat his wife, is he happy, is he lazy or energetic, zeal for life, etc.

Look up Success in the dictionary and you'll see a picture of MOTION, sub-titled with a picture of TABS. Ha, ha, ha.

Cheers!

Making $137k a year and whining about not being rich - like that guy in another thread...

Success is just another notch in life. It is just another completed goal one shoots for.

In my opinion, above and after success comes self-completeness and self-fullfillment.

Rob, hahaha. Thank you for the call, but I would venture that you are quite a bit more successful than I am. You seen to have it all and are enjoying every minute of it!

A) getting drawn for elk.
B) watching the look on everyones eyes, when i shoot the elk that they are looking at, but cant see, from some ungodly distance and listening to all the crap i get for doing it!
C) eating my elk/deer in front of others who missed their shot on their elk/deer!


"there aint no luggage racks on hearses" don henley.

Succeeding at something as opposed to failing? Or am I being too literal here?

No, I'm not. For some reason people get all twisted into a knot over this one little word and its implications more than any other. Everyone has such a deathly fear of being thought a loser by other people that it drives their every thought. Much of that is evident here. IMO, once you get past worrying about bourgois definitions of success sold to you by Madison Ave., you can really live the way you want to and not the way that advertising tells you that you should. Most "successful" people discover this way too late in life. That they had it all wrong.

I could really go on and on about how much that word and its implications for keeping the economy going irritates me, but suffice it to say that if you go to the store to buy a quart of milk and everything goes as planned, you are a success.

Consider the guy who plows my driveway. I had to wait 2 years to be on his LIST, because everyone knows he's the best. And by that, I mean when he plows your driveway you stand out there and say, "wow, that really IS a nice job". He only does 25 driveways, because he has other jobs and he doesn't like to rush. He also owns a woodlot, and sells firewood cut & seasoned. I only had to wait a year to get on that list, I was lucky. When he sells you a cord of firewood, it's a full cord with no funny business.

He is a funny feller... talks funny, and looks a little funny too. But he is a joy to deal with. Just wants to make an honest living, but doesn't want to work TOO hard. When he plows the driveway, his wife often comes along with him in the truck. She doesn't sit over in the passenger seat, she sits in the middle, right beside him. They have coffee, and they smile and wave if they see you in the window.

It's been a busy year for plowing, we've been plowed 10 times at $30 a pop. Considering he does 25 driveways and we're only halfway through the season, that's pretty good coin. I was chatting with him about that when I paid him right before christmas. He said it was a great year for him to be busy, because both his kids are in university. When he said that, you could hear the pride in his voice.

Now, contrast that with my friend's father who is SUPER SUCCESFUL... I know because he always tells us, in case we didn't notice. Made BIG MONEY in commercial real estate... he always has a BIG DEAL on the go. He's a nice enough guy, unless you are stuck with him for over 30 minutes, then you start to get annoyed by his constant need to recite the price of everything he owns. I actually admire his success, because he has worked really hard... harder than anyone else I know. However, he never seems happy, and demonstrates a constant need to prove himself. On the upside, it drives his success. The downside is he doesn't seem very content, and he can be a bit much.

Stand those two men beside each other, and ask me who I think is succesful.

Jake, A great story...it's moral is clear.

This concept really resonates with me, as I'm sure it does with 99% of you. As I get older, I realize that "important" things to me, and therefore those that I should concentrate on to achieve success, have very little to do with those associated with Man. As a whole, I am fairly ashamed of Man's "accomplishments" and superiority over other animals. Thus, more and more everyday, I choose to ignore them, along with Man's other creations.

I tend to shy away from team sports, art, poetry, literature, money, politics and those other things fabricated by Man. They are ugly. I find Nature much more enrapturing. I won't be eating bark anytime soon, but I see my future success, or "contentedness", being more Nature-centric.

Of course, my family, fiancee, her family and close friends are a different matter and deserve our attention and resources.

I am thankful that I have such a beautiful playground here in Montana to learn more about Nature and stay away from Man's ugly influences.

Good point, Richard.





*cough*
I'll take your Ferrari

Living life on your own terms.

Jake, the guy in your story has true success and happiness. I think most of us would love to be that guy. I know I would.

Jake, I HAVE SEEN THE LIGHT!!!!! The Ferrari is long gone... replaced with a Prius :D

I knew the CS was gone, but please tell me your joking on that last part!:eek:

Montana,
That's where you get divorced but you're still brother and sister; right?
Hee, Hee.

(that's actually what they say about an area that my roots are from, called Celista)