Every day I get several emails claiming that if I buy their program it will lead to success.  I don’t know about you but I am getting pretty tired of all these people trying to make me successful.  In fact, I don’t know if I am really interested in success anyway.

You are probably thinking that I have gone off the deep end.  Wouldn’t be the first time I have been accused of that and probably won’t be the last.

Here is where I’m coming from.  I don’t have an issue with people succeeding or with the idea of success.  I simply want more.  I want significance.  This past June, while in Guatemala, John Maxwell made the following statement in one of our training debriefing sessions; “Once you get a taste of significance, you will never settle for success.”

That’s more like it – Significance.  I find it interesting that I don’t get any emails that claim to make me significant.  I wonder why that is.  Maybe because it’s hard to put a dollar amount on significance.  Or maybe people don’t care if they are significant as long as they succeed.

I guess the best way to solve this problem is to define success.  Try this on for size: “Success is doing something you’ve never done before, that makes you feel like you’ve never felt before, in a place you’ve never been before, with people you’ve never met before”.  What do you think?

The picture in this post is of me with four of the orphans that I was blessed to meet while in Guatemala.  Some may say that the toys, books and clothes that we were able to provide was a big success.  Well, I think it was more than that – It was significant. We made a difference in their lives that day!

There is nothing wrong with success, but I really challenge anyone to take a hard look at what they are doing with whatever “success” they feel they have achieved, and tell me what the greater good there is in it.

That’s the difference between success and significance.  Success is about you and significance is about everyone else.  In building my business, I look at everything I do and ask a simple question; “What’s in it for them?”

That question allows me to train, speak, coach and write with the intent of adding value to others.  The paycheck is a bi-product.  Sure I have bills to pay just like everyone else but when I focus on the giving part of the equation, the receiving takes care of itself. Not always right away, but it does come back.

Zig Ziglar was spot on when he said; “You can have everything in life that you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.”  I want for others to experience that same thing I desire – to be significant.  At the end of the day, what people desire most is to feel valued.  What is the best way to do that?  By believing in them.

I don’t know what your business model is, and I don’t know what your definition of success is.  But this I know – if your success plan does not make you significant, your are short changing yourself and your clients or customers.

A challenge for you today – review your definition of success, your mission statement or your business plan.  I hope you have at least one of these.  If they do not show a clear path to significance, take the time to make the revisions necessary so you can become significant.

The numbers to the left of your checking account balance give a true statement of what you have.  The number of lives that you have positively impacted gives you the real value of your significance.  I guess I will throw in a question today; “Which numbers are you more interested in?”

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SAVE THE DATE:  On October 10th, John will be doing a WEBCAST to teach from his new book and introduce the Maxwell Leadership Assessment.  CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THE WEBCAST

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Barry Smith    9/23/13   photo by author   © Building What Matters 2013