This is the final post on The Power of FAILURE. The letter “E” for Emptiness. In the past few posts, we have gone through:
1. Frustration
2. Aggression
3. Insecurity
4. Loneliness
5. Uncertainty
6. Resentment
All of the above are tips on how to use The Power of Failure for us to achieve our goals and live our dream. However too often our goals and dream are skewed by the end result.
What do I mean by the end result?
The end result is our expectation. Far too often we forget that the goal and dream is the journey, the journey of creating something, doing something, and achieving some useful outcome, however when the end result is replaced by obtaining recognition, earning money, fame, and glory we will find nothing other than EMPTINESS.
I have said this many times, MONEY is a by-product of you following your passion. When you throw yourself into something you love, you will eventually find that you get rewarded for it. However, we do not start our goal by earning money. This is the recipe where you will find nothing other than emptiness. When you work for money, all you get and feel at the end of the month is a pay cheque that pays the bills but doesn’t bring you happiness. No matter how much you can buy with that earnt money, all those material and physical items will only give you short-lived and instant satisfaction but lose their luster in no time. Even if the money buys the best holidays it is probably no more than 10% of your total time.
The Corona virus pandemic was actually an awakening for money who suddenly realised that they had been wasting away their life and time for just a pay. It was a time when I saw many people change jobs, and realign themselves with their passion and purpose.
Take it from the many actors who after winning the Oscar and receiving all the fame and glory in the world suddenly turn to drugs and alcohol. It is those cases where their end goal was replaced by money, fame, and glory. AND GUESS WHAT, when they open their treasure box IT IS EMPTY. It is empty because they cannot buy happiness with money.
It is our misconception that we think we will be happy when we have money to buy this, that, travel, and do all the things that you otherwise need money for. It is true we need money to eat, travel, and even be connected to the internet but none of these can bring us internal happiness.
Unless we find and tune the mechanism of HAPPINESS inside us no matter what we do, we will always find EMPTINESS on the other side of the road.
Yes, you are reading between the lines. I would be lying if I said I hadn’t at one point replaced those parameters. I thought that people would see me as successful; when I had sold my company, when the company was making millions, when the news was published and when I won awards.
Today I just enjoy the ride. I enjoy participating in events, I enjoy mentoring startups and other founders to achieve their dreams, I share their enthusiasm and adrenaline rush, I enjoy the excitement of UNCERTAINTY and working with startups, and I enjoy helping other clients achieve their objectives with my knowledge and expertise and I feel satisfied and accomplished in just having achieved those.
I now work with startup founders and incubators to make sure that entrepreneurs start their journey with aligned passion and vision. A happy journey starts with a real purpose. Call me for a one-to-one mentoring session, an inspirational talk for your entrepreneurs, or a workshop on Pitching. These are all the things I enjoy in life.