There is a joke that says, “If you want to get rid of a cold, give it to someone else”. Of course, when you give things to people, a cold is the last thing that comes to mind. An interesting study called, “World Giving Index” is released every year. The study is carried out on charitable behavior across the globe. They regularly found that happier people are more likely to give money to charity than those who are wealthy (and unhappy). When we share success, we help spread success to others.
Share Success: World Giving Index
The “World Giving Index” used a Gallup survey on charitable behavior in 153 countries representing 95% of the world’s population. For all countries, WGI compared the strength of the relationship between giving within a nation’s GDP and the happiness of its population. The survey asked people whether they had given money to charity in the last month. Then rank how happy they are with life on a scale of one to ten. WGI found that the link between happiness and giving is stronger than the link between wealth and giving.
The findings concluded that when a person makes a decision to give to charity, not only the charity improves, but so does the happiness of the individual. It also concluded that happier people are the more likely give. Not because they have more wealth, but because they have more happiness.
Remember our success can directly affect the lives of those around us. Whether it is for good or bad. I firmly believe our success is meant to be shared with others. The universal truth, you reap what you sow, plays an important point in this.
When we learn to share our success, we not only help others, but we help ourselves. Like the Bible says, “Give and it will be given to you… for with the same measure that you use, it will be given back to you”. Not that we help others out of selfish reasons, or as an excuse for personal gain, but because we want to share our success to help bless others. Even when we undergo our own professional development, it’s not just for our own gain. Our families, children, and companies also benefit. Just like the old adage says – When we grow, we can help others grow.
Share Your Success: A take from Michael Jordan
If you ask anyone to identify a successful person, you will find a majority chosen are people who’ve used their success to help others. The great basketball legend Michael Jordan said, “To be successful you have to be selfish, or else you never achieve. And once you get to your highest level, then you have to be unselfish. Stay reachable. Stay in touch. Don’t isolate.”
Obviously, we all have the freedom to use success to build our own little empire. To stay detached to others around us. Although we have the freedom, we’ll soon find out that we are no longer free. The person who becomes stingy and self-centered will eventually spend all their time, energy and health trying to not lose their success. Only to find out they have no time or energy left to use their success. John Maxwell summarized this idea nicely when he said, “It’s a shame people use all their health to create wealth, only to use all their wealth to regain health.”
So the moral of the story is to focus on the right things and start making plans to share our success with others. It could be simple things like our organization ideas or how we establish purpose in our lives, or even the routines that help us become more productive.
Ten Commandments of Business Success Conclusion
In closing, these 10 commandments were designed to help people find, quantify, design, organize, plan and support the various principles needed to find and maintain a successful business. These principles also help people fulfill all their various goals and dreams. Being successful is not a means-all to end-all, but a series of steps we can take to help us live healthy, full, and productive lives. And leave a positive legacy for others to follow.