The Greatness Project

Measuring Success

March 15, 2004

A recent USA Today poll indicates that 64% of those surveyed hate their jobs, yet when compared with almost any other nation, Americans spend more time at work. Our country maintains one of the highest standards of living, and yet we’re among the most dissatisfied with our lives. We continue to work harder, and yet professional success eludes us. Yes, we live out the curse of Sisyphus, expending great effort to push a boulder up the mountain, only to have it roll down again whenever we nearly reach the top.

Why do many of us continue to accept this overemphasis on work in our lives as we pursue success? Possibly because historical accounts of those who have achieved greatness often focus on their single-minded pursuit of goals to the exclusion of anything else. Success stories generally tend to gloss over personal sacrifices. And so this notion of single-minded pursuit to achieve success is the standard of behavior that’s expected of achievers, particularly in corporate America where “personal needs” are readily relinquished to achieve higher goals. We’re pleased to report that new research reveals how it’s possible to take a more balanced approach to evaluate and attain professional—and personal—success.

In a Harvard Business Review article, “Success That Lasts” (March 2004), Laura Nash and Howard Stevenson identify four components of “enduring success.” Their research reveals how high achieving individuals tend to develop the capacity to balance their lives so they can succeed in each of these four categories:

Happiness – feelings of pleasure and contentment about life.

Achievement – accomplishments that compare favorably against similar goals of others.

Significance – the sense of making a positive impact on cherished people.

Legacy – establishing values or accomplishments that help others find future success.

Nash and Stevenson suggest taking time to jot down what constitutes success for self, family, work, and community within each of these categories. At this point you might feel overwhelmed believing that you can’t possibly succeed in all these categories. Yet ASGMC discovered that evaluating life and work in these four categories can serve to motivate you by acknowledging the success you’ve generated already, and then identifying areas that need to be balanced or filled in.

The final and most important contribution of this research is “the reasoned pursuit of just enough.” Nash and Stevenson discovered that people experience real satisfaction through “the deliberate imposition of limits.” The successful people they studied “were able to focus intensely on one task until it gave them a particular sense of satisfaction, then put it down and jump to the next category with a feeling of accomplishment and renewed energy.”

Clearly, we cannot push the proverbial boulder up the mountain each day without a break. Balancing all four components—happiness, achievement, significance, and legacy—will help us understand the success we already have and rejuvenate ourselves to continue pursuing greatness.