What’s the Price of “Success” – 100X More Incoming

What would you say is the price of success? In his book, “Tools of the Titans,” Tim Ferris writes about his experience in achieving fame and success in his writing career. A quote from that book that stood out to me was,

“I have identified conflicts between goals (become “successful”…) and related side effects (100X more inbound) which negate the benefits.”

What was Tim saying?

He was telling us that the more success, acclaim, and fame a person achieves, the more people want a piece of his/her time and energy.

That’s the price of “success” – at least by the popular definition of success. We will explore what true success is in another post.

But for now, let’s ask the question, “What price are you willing to pay – not just to get ‘success’ but to maintain ‘success'”.

Can you handle “100X more incoming”?

Do you want people to eat up your time and energy with their agendas – with what THEY want you to do for them?

Anyone in a leadership position – whether a manager of a grocery store or the president of a multi-national corporation — understands this dilemma.

People always want a piece of you.

It comes in the form of constant questions, requests, and dozens (if not hundreds) of emails in a day — everyone wants an answer — everyone wants their piece of your time, energy, and attention.

But what about the things that are important to you? — Your family. Your faith. Your friends.

Here’s the kicker…

You have finite resources.

You only have so much time, energy, and attention to give.

Do you want tranquility, happiness, and time to pursue your dreams, or do you want “100X incoming”?

The question then becomes, “How much of what you truly want are you willing to sacrifice for popular acclaim?”

We live in an age where hundreds of thousands of people are trying to hit it rich, become popular, and make a name for themselves. They want to be “influencers,” but don’t realize the price of “success” on their time, family, and friends.

In business, it is no different. People strive to hit benchmarks of power and money, only to find out that they aren’t equipped (mentally, emotionally, or physically) to handle the “100X incoming.”

So what’s the caluclation here?

You’ve got to figure out how much “incoming” you can handle and still maintain your happiness – your equilibrium of peace and harmony with yourself, with family, with friends.

Fame, success, popularity — whatever you want to call it — is a bear that feeds on your time, energy, and attention.

Happy people understand the connection between the size of the bear and the level of “success.”

Happy people choose the size of their bear – not the size of their success.

You don’t want 100X incoming.

You can’t handle that bear.

Chase peace, contentment, and happiness.

Success can — and likely will — eat you alive.

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