"Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value."

I wanted to feature an important life lesson from Albert Einstein where he subtly reframes the foundation that our society is built around.

Something that so many of us value, that we see as the ultimate end goal of everything we do, is to be successful. The tricky thing is, success is different for every person. 

We all have different interests, preferences, and values that are leading us to our own version of living our best lives! But the problem is all of this individuality gets tossed into the same bucket that is labeled as “being successful”. As a result we conform to society’s convention of what success is at the expense of pursuing our own, and wonder why we’re not happy when we get there.

This is what Einstein comments on -"Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value."

No matter what form it takes, value is the true underlying driver of success.

The business who provides the most value for their clients usually wins in the marketplace by having the most revenue.

Having deep and meaningful relationships are built on the value that you offer one another.

Getting in the best shape of your life helps you feel more confident, which allows you to show up more authentically and deliver the value that only you have to offer.

But as you’d expect, Albert Einstein chose his words closely. "Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value." The focus isn’t on what happens as a result, the emphasis is placed on the pursuit, the process. His hypothesis is that we choose to use the lens of being of value to orient our strategies and actions.

The ironic part is, the people who have this value-facing orientation tend to be rewarded the most too.

So how can we be more of value? Let’s use a few other words to make it more concrete.

Helpful. Find ways to be more helpful, and how you can help people overcome the problems they’re facing.

Useful. Be more useful so that the skills that you do have can be applied and contribute to something.

Thoughtful. Being thoughtful about what people might need or want brings to awareness ways to be proactive.

And while I don’t have enough life behind me to state as fact, I am very confident in saying that to the extent that you choose to be of value, you will experience a congruent amount of feelings of success.

If you know me, you know this is what I’m all about. Together we can live an extraordinary life and make an extraordinary impact. And in my opinion, the path to both of those is by being of service and adding value.