I've done a bit of smugglin'This month marks my 20 year service anniversary at John Wiley & Sons. This seems like a good opportunity to hit the 'pause' button on this wild ride called life and reflect on a few things. When you consider how much time we spend working its no wonder that our sense of identity and self-worth get inextricably linked with our jobs. It's also why the 'Great Recession' is taking a much larger and devastating toll on this country in terms of the number of people (many of our own family and friends) who lost jobs and with them their sense of identity and worth. I'm so blessed and thankful to have found a home at John Wiley and continue to make meaningful contributions.
I've run my share of grass.
I made enough money to buy Miami,
But I pissed it away so fast, Never meant to last,
Never meant to last. -J.Buffett-A Pirate Looks At 40
I once had a boss who challenged me by saying something like, "the reason you work so hard is because you are afraid you'll fail". I took great exception with this statement and told him he couldn't be more wrong. I work so hard precisely so that I don't fail. The difference, subtle as it may be, is in how one defines success. In sales this is pretty easy - either you make your sales goal or you don't. But it's not always so 'cut & dry'. In 20 years I've only missed my sales goal 4 times (and until this past year it was always by only a few percentage points - which means my company made a lot of money on me, but I didn't). My point here is that in those years that I didn't make my goal, I did other things that I knew were important to the organization. One thing I learned many years ago is that when you play by other people's rules, you will lose more than you will ever win because these rules weren't written with your unique strengths and skills in mind. Although the goal is the same, you need to create your own rules to enable you to use your God given talents to achieve these. You can miss a goal and still be successful. I haven't always been so conscientious about these things, however what I did was simply get into some habits where I actually didn't think much about them, I just did them. Whether it was work or family related, exercise, diet, etc. I just did it. Sort of like when you're at the top of the mountain skiing down - if you stop and think about what you're about to do, it gets very scary and too easy to change your mind about the route. Sometimes it's best to just go (be careful) and do the best you can. 
In all seriousness, the one true and perhaps best measure of success for any of us is, at the end of the day, can we look at ourselves in the mirror and say, "I did my best".
"All I I can give you is my very best, and when I do that, I ain't gonna worry about the rest" - Ann Peebles - Give me some Credit
