Happy Friday! It turns out that once we ignore the external pressures of image-makers and lifestyle marketers, we are all a lot more successful than we thought we were… “make sure our ideas of success are our own” – Quite right!
Have a great weekend, feel free to comment as ever, how successful are you feeling these days?
Richardksa
16 Oct 09 at 3:44 pm
I have always found it refreshing that here in Spain the first question is not “What do you do?” It is possible to get to know someone quite well before you find out what his job is. I also find it refreshing that my barrio’s probably poshest café has no quarms about having the street sweepers collect there for their second breakfast. While there are ambitious Spaniards, there does not, to me anyway, seem to be a class/caste system that judges a parson on what he/she does.
Parubin
16 Oct 09 at 4:28 pm
Being successful is being reasonably happy, and happiness is finding two olives in your martini when you’re hungry.
ValenciaSon
16 Oct 09 at 5:12 pm
While I find myself in agreement with most of what Alain says. I guess I differ by a matter of degree on the whole meritocracy issue and how we gauge ourselves. I think that internal satisfaction is worthy of acknowledgement, but not at the expense of ignoring external perceptions of an individual who exercises poor judgement as defined by societal norms. No one lives in a vacuum. I think the message in all this should not only be, strive for meritocracy, unattainable it may be but do not focus on internal satisfaction, at the expense of ignoring how one is perceived in society. Your mileage may vary, but don’t purchase that BMW just to keep up with the Joneses or other Fulanos. BTW, if you come to the DC area, do not be surprised if in social situations you are asked what do you do. Here, that is just the ice-breaker used by habit and not some attempt to gauge how unfortunate you are or whether you aren’t a loser.
Rai
17 Oct 09 at 3:14 am
TED, as always, fascinating and mind expanding.
I’m a loser because I’ve lost what I’ve been given, or what I had been about to achieve, as I compete with my peers.
I’m a winner in the few aspects that I succeeded in obtaining a ‘win’ for myself. And in general we are all quite fortunate to live in the times we do. Providence has shone its light upon us. Gratefully.
Ben
17 Oct 09 at 9:55 am
@Richardksa – I agree that here the whole ‘what do you do’ question is not nearly as defining, amongst the majority at least. I fear that is changing though… in direct proportion to the number of new BMW’s on the road!
@Parubin – love it!
@VS – I agree, that is a common ice-breaker everywhere, and in fact a very interesting question! What someone does doesn’t make me judge their worth as someone worthy of talking too or not, for me it opens up the possibility of an interesting conversation about something new I can learn about!
luke
18 Oct 09 at 11:53 am
Thanks passing that on. I’ve always been in favour of a meritocratic society but the truth is that society always falls way short of that. And does a meritocratic society create a majority who believe they are losers, who in extreme cases commit suicide? Proabably. The answer seems to be to accept that there is little justice, divine or otherwise, and that life is actually fairly random.
Schofields
19 Oct 09 at 11:58 am
The TED videos can be inspirational and very thought provoking.
It’s worth taking some time to view the past ones from industry leaders.