The 4 L's of Success
Cole Zingas
February 2018
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Cole Zingas
February 2018
The Four L’s: Success
I performed a one-minute timed exercise — before looking at any outside sources, before interviewing my grandparents — which was to write down an answer the question: How do I define success?
“To me, success is defined as making something of myself, reinventing some aspect of the world; and helping to give others the opportunity to do both of those things, if not more… and to enjoy life while reaching these goals.”
My definition was intentionally left vague. My goals and ambitions are always changing, and if I defined success in terms of concrete goals of substance (for example, getting accepted to medical school), then this definition would be ever evolving.
But, in breaking down this statement, I can see that it outlines four components of a successful life:
1. Leadership – making something of myself
My ambitions are high, and I am always striving to become a leader. That is, to become renowned in the professional world, to be looked up to by my peers and colleagues, and to be the best [insert calling here] I can be.
2. Legacy – reinventing some aspect of the world
I want to help redefine an aspect of the world. I grew up with the notion that nobody’s perfect, and we live in a world that is far from it. I am not a perfectionist. But when there are cracks in the wall of a crucial problem — that bothers me. I want to tweak, improve, and revamp the wall to seal the cracks.
3. Lending a helping hand – helping others to do numbers 1 and 2
Can I simultaneously focus on my own personal ambitions as well as staying concerned with the needs of others? Yes, absolutely I can. I look at my own life, and I realize how I would have never made it this far without helping others. And I look at my church, and how that community depends upon and revolves around helping each other out in times of need. I need to do things for myself, but I also need to help others along the way, as people have helped me.
4. Loving life – enjoy life while reaching these goals
Finally, personal ambition and legacy aren’t going to mean as much to me if I’m not enjoying life in the meantime. I can worry all I want about achieving professional goals, climbing the ladder in society. But if I’m not enjoying the success I may or may not be achieving, will I be happy at the end of my life?
Right now, I am pretty happy with this definition of success. The harder questions to address are: What exactly will I make of myself? What aspect of the world will I reinvent? Which goals will I try to reach? How flexible should I be in my pursuit? How do I know when I should decide to pursue something without turning back, without wavering?