Success vs. Significance
John C. Maxwell once said; “Successful people are not always significant. But significant people are always successful.”
When it comes to comparing success with significance, you might be asking yourself, is there a difference? I mean after all; successful people are also significant, aren’t they? Look at Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Elon Musk. Those people are both significant and quite successful. And what about other people of significance. Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi, Marton Luther King. These people were also both successful and quite significant. So, what is the difference between success and significance anyway? Let’s answer that question by answering couple of other questions first.
Only then will we have a better understanding of each one and be in the position to answer the question ‘what’s the difference between the two’.
Successful people are not always significant. But significant people are always successful.
Question number one, ‘what does success look like to most people?’
If people were to come up to you and marvel at your success, what would they be marveling about? The kind of multi-million-dollar computer company you created from the ground up like Bill Gates? Or would they marvel at how much money you have like Warren Buffett? Or perhaps it would be your EV car company you created from the ground up to one of the world’s largest companies in the automotive industry and ultimately taking it to the next level by launching it into space. And for those who forgot, Elon Musk actually did launch one of his cars into space and it’s still there to this day.
Perhaps you’re like a lot of other people who view success as a personal drive, empowered and determined by how many followers you have on social media. How many likes, comments, or shares. Perhaps your definition of success is a more modest one. Like, you were able to pay your bills on time this month. Or maybe success for you was overcoming one of todays’ greatest challenges. You were finally able to break past a company’s ATS, and after multiple in person interviews, landed that job you applied for three months ago.
But no matter what success looks like for you, the majority of people measure success by the same unit of measure. The achievement of my personal goal. Have I reached my goal. If not, how close am I to achieving it? What else do I need to do in order to reach my goal.
Now let’s look at question number two, ‘what does it mean to be significant?’
To start answering this question, let’s look at how Google defines ‘significant’.
As you can see here, Google defines significant as; sufficiently great or important to be worthy of attention; noteworthy.
With that being the case, the best way to stand out, regardless of whether or not you’re successful, is to be of great importance to others. How do you do this? Easy. Help them become successful at reaching their personal goals. Sometimes their goals will be small, other times they’ll be quite large. But in either case, if you help them reach their personal goals, you’ll become significant in their eyes. You would be the ones they’ll remember. And when the time comes when you’ll need help, they’ll be more inclined to help you in return. With that said, the opposite is also true. If you notice someone’s down and you view their downed position as an opportunity to take advantage of them for your own personal gain, then when, not if, but when, the time comes where you yourself need help, they’ll be the first ones to disregard your cry and simply walk away. Or worst yet, they might take advantage of your downfall for their own personal gain and leave you in the dust. If you help them when the chips are down, they’re more than likely to help you. At the very least, they’ll be inclined to not hurt you when your chips are down. No matter how strong the nefarious urge would be. After all, friends don’t hurt friends who have help them in the past.
Now that we have a better understanding of what success looks like for most people and what significance means, we can use these more accurate views to outline the main difference between the two. To put it in simplest terms, being successful helps us, while being significant helps others. Consider the last paragraph in success: “The achievement of my personal goal. Have I reached my goal. If not, how close am I to achieving it? What else do I need to do in order to reach my goal.” Notice the ‘I’s and the ‘my’s in that statement. The achievement of MY personal goal. Have I reached MY goal. If not, how close am I to achieving it? What else do I need to in order to reach MY goal.”
Compare that to significant. To be significant we have to be ‘important to be worthy of attention’. The one word I’d like to point out is, ‘worthy’. The only way to be worthy of another’s attention is to have an impact on their life. How do we become worthy of their attention? By helping them. Now, some may argue that if we don’t pay our bills we gain the attention of the bill collectors, and they’d be right. In that argument, by neglecting to pay your bills you’d be worthy of the bill collectors’ attention. But that’s not what I’m talking about here. What I’m talking about is being worthy of being called significant in a positive way. Having significance in the community. Having significance in church. Having significance in an organization that needs help on a daily basis. And when the chips are down, those are the ones who will be significant in YOUR life. Regardless of any successes you may or may not have had.
You want to have a life filled with success, be significant in the lives of others. That’s the key. Because being a success comes from watching out for yourself, while being significant comes from watching out for others. In closing I want to leave you with the words from Zig Ziglar:
“If you help enough people get what they want, you can have everything you want.”
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About Paul Calhoun
Chicago based Mental Wellness Consultant and Trainer Paul Calhoun is an accredited Mental Health First Aid Instructor and mental health advocate with over 30 years’ experience in the Mental Health arena. He’s worked with key decision makers in both Government and Private sectors. He’s also spoken internationally on the topic of Mental Health in both profit and not-for-profit organizations. For more information, CLICK HERE to download Pauls’ Speaker One Sheet.