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Making Sense of Money

How Will You Measure Your Life?

How Will You Measure Your Life?

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How Will You Measure Your Life? When you reflect on your life, are you happy with your career and accomplishments? What do you want to be remembered for? What is your legacy? Do your personal relationships with friends and family provide happiness?

Historical Quote

Ralph Waldo Emerson defined success with these words: “To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better; whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you lived. This is to have succeeded.”

Career

How do you measure success in your career? Is it the amount of money you earned? Is it measured in how many accomplishments you accumulated? Is it based on your job title? It can be all of these and more. To be fair, I think you have to put it in context. How do you measure earnings? Measuring earnings purely based on how much you make is the easy answer. Earnings should include salary, bonus, stock options, and benefits. Work environment and potential for personal growth are also important.

Your first job may not pay a lot, but you need to accumulate experience so you are ready for the next position. Where and what is the right experience? It helps if you know where you are going and have a strategy. I always knew I either wanted to lead a company or start my own. My strategy was to accumulate enough financial experience to understand how a company works! At the same time, I was investing in income property to generate a steady income stream. It was my way of reducing risk.

My career spans insurance administration (training program), sales (Sales Engineer), Accounting (Supervisor, Accounting manager, Controller, VP Finance, CFO), financial analysis (Sr. Financial Analyst), entrepreneur (business owner, consultant) and teacher. I accumulated a lot of financial, administrative, management and business experience. Earnings through my career and businesses provided me with resources to give me choices in life. Are you happy with your career? What are you doing about it?

Legacy

What do you want to be remembered for? As I get old(er), I think about this question a little bit more often than when I was younger. This thought may have contributed to my decision to enter teaching ten years ago. Throughout my careers, I was always the one who would explain complicated issues to people. The audience ranged from employees, management, bankers, and owners. I trained a lot of employees in my career as well. Teaching seemed like a natural transition for my skills. I wanted to influence young people using business and technology.

Teaching provides an opportunity to influence young people in a variety of ways. I teach them so much more than the subject matter in the curriculum. I teach them values, soft skills and business skills. I would like to be remembered for my contribution in business, but more importantly affecting in excess of 3,000 students in my first ten years of teaching. Each student may affect a family, friends, neighbors and society. A legacy, I can be proud of. What are you going to do?

Personal Relationships

Are you a type “A” personality? Are you a workaholic? A workaholic is a person who works compulsively at the expense of other pursuits. This is a person, who works at the expense of friends and family. They throw everything into their work for a variety of reasons and neglect their family and friends. They are very successful in their career, but the rest of their lives are in shambles. As human beings, we need more than money and success in our lives. What do you think?

When I was in the business world, I adjusted my schedule to be home for dinner with the family. I went to work early and still do to get my work done so I do not have to stay late. Starting work between 6-7 AM, always gave me an advantage over my colleagues. I was probably more productive or efficient starting so early. What do you do to increase your productivity?

Final Thoughts

What is your strategy for success in your career, legacy and personal relationships? Previously, I shared with you my journey to success which highlights my strategy for success. A strategy is a plan, a method or series of maneuvers to obtain a goal or result. Family, friends and my legacy are equally important to me. I am married a long time (43+ years) and maintain a good relationship with my children. I have a few close firends for over forty (40) years. I did everything I set out to do and there are still more to accomplish. What is your strategy for success? I love strategy games and it uses my strength in planning too. I remember reading a book about success that says you should act like the way you want to be. If you want to be successful, how are you performing? How Will You Measure Your Life?

Photo by: joey ganoza

Comments

  1. Those are some soul searching questions KC!  Some areas I need to work on, some I think I’m doing ok.  I like how you measure your success. 

    • For life to be really fulfilling, there are many things to measure to see if you are successful.

  2. Now that I have kids, I have realized that my legacy is with them.  Therefore, spending time with them and teaching them and loving them is the number one thing I concentrate on in my life. 

  3. Awesome post. This is so timely because I was just talking about this with my husband. I really want to live a more conscious life; one that ensures I am doing all I want to do. Like you said, this requires a strategy and that’s why my current project is coming up with my own strategy. Hopefully it all works out. Thanks for the great reminder and insight. 

    • A strategy or plan for your life is as important as goals (financial and personal). One of the reasons it is so important, is we are talking about a lifetime.

  4. I think a great deal of how I measure success will be in how my children turn out. I will also measure by how many regrets I’ve racked up over the years. Hopefully those should be as few as possible. Bank balance numbers are nice, but that needs to be balanced with opportunities taken and opportunities missed over the years.

    • Life is measured by so much more than dollars and cents. I think it is important, but it does represent all of my life.

  5. These are some really provocative and important questions. I think all too often we neglect this type of introspection and focus on lesser things. Other times we may focus on the right things but not for the right intentions or motivations. By knowing what your life goals are, you can prevent a lot of heartache and live a more fulfilled life.

    • Imagine if people would actually had a strategy for their lives in their twenties. I wonder how many twenty year olds have a strategy for life, career, or relationships?

  6. Teaching can definitely be a rewarding career 🙂  This all boils down to what your priorities are.  Is money more important to you that comes from a high-stressed job or is less money but more time with your family higher on the list?  At the end of the day, you have to ask yourself if what you are doing makes you happy or not.

    • My family was always a priority no matter what I did! Money or earnings was more of a measurement of success. Over time, I realized there is more to success than just earnings.

  7. Well, my kids will be a partial measure of my life.  Almost all of my energy goes into raising them in one way or another.  I figure I only have 18 years with them, and I want to make the most of those years.

    I am quite happy with where I am at the moment.  I feel lucky that I was able to help care for my dad and grandparents before they passed.  (We had the opportunity to take a job at Microsoft across the country and turned it down to stay behind with family.  Probably the worst financial decision we ever made, but I am happy we didn’t go.)

    A definite area of improvement is volunteering.  I used to volunteer with new moms/babies at the hospital, but I kind of grew out of that phase as my kids got older, and I need to find a new area to volunteer in (besides school).

    • My kids are considerably older (37 & 34) than eighteen and things do not end. I value our relationships much more now. I get to influence both of them. Don’t ever regret your decisions. Happiness is far more important than money.
      One of my 2012 goals is to start volunteering. I think I will do my volunteering at the Boys/Girls Club.

  8. I increase my productivity the same way.  I actually thought about it last week, and I feel that there is such a difference between an extra hour in the morning versus an extra hour in the late afternoon, that I would say I am 300% more productive in the morning, with absolutely no exaggeration.

    Being a teacher gives a nice balance of ways to measure your career.  I one day hope to move up the education food chain, and simply measure my achievements by how much energy I put into making the world a better place.

    • I wish you luck! Education needs a fresh approach or a renewed approach. I run my class similar to a business. I want my students to walk away with skills. I assign 16-20 projects each semester and give full credit when they complete it correctly. I am always grading, but my students learn skills.

  9. I’ve never really thought about my legacy.  I guess I’m too busy trying to make things happen now.  I know a I grow older, I will think more about my mortality.

    I hope the Yakezie Network can go on and on forever, and morph with the times.

    Best, Sam

  10. This post is challenging me, like so many of your articles KC. I like to think I will have many friends, a loving successful family, and a handsome legacy to pass on.

    • Each day, I look in the mirror and ask myself if I made my best effort. Everyday, I can respond yes. I now start to ask what can I do differently to achieve more. I challenge myself as often as I can.

  12. As you get old(er), you tend to reflect more on your life and accomplishments. I sometimes think about how I will be remembered by other than family members. I would like to think I had some influence on some young people’s lives in a positive way.

  13. Deep thoughts. I’m not sure how I want to be remembered. For my accomplishments, yes. I hope to be published in some big-time publications someday, to have written books and appeared on/hosted TV shows. And I’d like to be remembered fondly by the children I don’t have yet.

    • Evaluating my life will be complicated, but I hope to have some effect on some of my students. I am a little surprised how a positive word, words of encouragement or thought changes someone’s life. Perhaps it is a blog that touches someone, as a volunteer or as a role model. I may never know!

  14. Wow that’s a lot of career titles, I’m currently looking to go into the financial analyst field because that’s what I’m interested in. The only way for me right now is to work harder than everybody else and get noticed

    • Working harder than everybody else helps, but you must distinguish yourself as well. A few super accomplishments that will make you shine.

  15. During our child raising years, I was so busy I never thought about a legacy, or how I would be remembered.  But, like you, Krant, I have grown a bit older.  My children are on their own, they love and respect me, and (even more importantly), they love and respect each other.  I still love hanging around with my wife of 41 years.  So…is this how I will be remembered…a family man who loved his wife and raised great kids?  If so, that would be fine with me.

    • That is a good legacy, I wish more parents would embrace their responsibility more to achieve the same. As a teacher, I have an opportunity to influence thousands of kids and hopefully help them become their best.

  16. I don’t think career means as much these days as it used to.  For one, so many Americans no longer have a career. Next, more and more people end up as consultants, freelancers and BLOGGERS!  and finally, nobody works at the same company for the whole life like they used to.  I think friends/family, what you did for others, memorable moments and leaving a legacy are going to be high on my list as I get up in years.

    • I agree the most memorable and important memories are with friends and family. In addition, I have the unusual opportunity to influence young people as a teacher. This experience adds to my legacy.