#9 - Salaryman

Been doing some finances and reflection. And chatting to my clients!

Here’s my 2 cents about the grind.

Success

What a strong word.

Coming from a banking background, there was a time when success meant money.
Lots and lots of it! 

When someone would say, “wow, they’re really successful”, it usually meant they make a lot of money, or they climbed the corporate ladder really fast.

It’s easy to judge/grade/evaluate someone on their monetary/material performance.
Getting big bonuses? Successful
Promoted quickly? Successful
But never heard someone say: “they are successful, they seem at peace.” 

The definition of Success (Miriam Webster): “achieving the results wanted or hoped for”.

It’s funny it doesn’t say who wants or hopes for it. Sometimes success feels like it’s a projection of what we think others want.
Or, what others want for us. 

What do You want?

Grind

Take your average person earning a salary, i.e. me as a young business banker. Wanting job security, wanting financial independence, wanting a path for growth. Wanting to create impact. 

What time horizon are we talking about?
And for how long?

As a young salaryman, the answer would of course be as soon as possible, for as long as possible. The good old optimise now, and sustain forever.
The innocence is endearing.

I wanted the shortcuts, the hacks, the tricks, work smart, not hard! 

Perhaps you would have advice for naive me, and tell them that it doesn’t happen instantly. That you still have to put in the work, and that work can be straight up hard sometimes, but necessary to work smart. And even then, the journey of sustaining is bumpy with roads unseen, and weather unknown.
Might need a bit of a “Growth Mindset”.

Fortunately, I learned(and still learning!) some perspectives both through people and through experiences, and yes, it does need a good swirl every now and then.
Because it can be forgotten.

What’s the wisdom you need to hear for your current challenge?

Purpose

Then at some point, the work feels less like progress and more like pressure..

Money can solve problems, quite a few. But it can’t tell you why you’re solving them.

If success was really about accumulating titles/pay checks/achievements/toys, then we’d all just be hoarders?(another fun topic!)

Enter purpose, stage right. 

Success starts to behave differently. Maybe it’s about wanting something meaningful. Like peace?
Maybe that’s too fluffy.
Sure, security can be a purpose, and so can freedom. Same coin, 2 sides right.

Freedom for what though?

Victor Frankl says it’s our responsibility to find our own meaning, either through doing something, encountering someone, or experiencing something tough. 

We can’t discover these until we go out and live it.

I even had a ‘success perm’! circa 2017