The Existential Cost of Success
Don’t sacrifice meaning on the alter of success
Many people are desperate to win in life and career. But at what cost? Success comes with an existential price. You can get what you want, but you could end up miserable. Many people experience an existential crisis when they make it past a certain point in their careers.
Success is a paradox. At a completely different level, when you are juggling many things simultaneously, you can quickly lose meaningful experiences.
“There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart’s desire. The other is to gain it.” George Bernard Shaw said.
The price of winning is often a blindspot. Getting what you want comes with everything else we rarely think about — the cost of maintenance, the price of losing what you’ve gained, the emotional stress of losing it, struggle to make time for the people you love, taking real-time off away from it to decompress.
“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” Zig Ziglar once said.
Choose your hustle carefully. If you are already on the path to becoming a better version of yourself, ask yourself what you need to make the journey a complete and meaningful experience.
