by Don Huntington, Editorial Director

“You never achieve real success unless you like what you are doing.” (Dale Carnegie)

A malaise abroad in our culture seemingly causes many people to regard life as bleak and colorless in spite of the fact that most of us work at jobs that are incredibly wonderful by the standards of a third of the world’s population, who are typically doing things like planting rice, and scavenging for food and firewood.

I seem to have bypassed the problem, since I really love what I do – which makes me at least partially successful when judged by the criteria in today’s quote. By any normal standard of judging, however, mine is a very mitigated success indeed. I have no fame whatsoever, and have never accomplished anything that would qualify me as successful in the eyes of the world. Until a couple of months ago I hadn’t received a regular paycheck in almost five years.

I’m frankly unconcerned about success as judged by common standards of status and wealth, because the fact is that I’m not responsible for my successes or failures. Abraham Lincoln, himself, wrote, “I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me.” Even more than Lincoln, I have little power over the things that happen to me and even less over the outcomes of those events. For example, I may break my back, be unable to work, subsequently lose my house, and end up living in a dilapidated van in a seedy trailer court. That would seem like a failure. However, the accident might cause me to spend three years lying on my back in intense reflection resulting in my creating a work of literature that changes the world. Breaking my back, in that case, would have become an absolutely essential step towards a wonderful outcome.

On the other hand, I might start my own successful company, become a billionaire, and a year later fly my personal jet plane into a mountain. Becoming a successful businessman, in that case, would have turned out to be an essential step in an awful tragedy.

Who is wise enough to judge success? Who can tell what is ultimately good or bad in the events of life? I’m content to leave my successes as well as my failures in the hands of my Master – and even leaving to Him the judgment of which actions belong in which category.

But I’m successful by the one criterion that Dale Carnegie mentions in today’s quote. I really like what I’m doing. Creating content for our magazine every month is more satisfying for me than going to Disneyland. I love the life I am living!

Satisfaction in a person’s work depends 90 percent upon attitude and only 10 percent upon the nature of the job. Job satisfaction comes especially from an aim at excellence. “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might,” the Bible says, which is advice reflected in another comment by Lincoln, “Whatever you are, be a good one.”

I agree with Carnegie that success comes from doing something you enjoy doing. I believe that if people don’t like their job then they should seek out something that they like and do that. With the right attitude, however, I can sometimes find a third alternative: I can nearly always find something to like, even in a bad working situation, and so could attain Carnegie’s criterion for success in almost any situation.

Years ago, to help put myself through school I spent two summers operating a boxing machine in a meat-packing company. I’m not a naturally fast person and it took me a while to learn how to efficiently operate that device. However, I eventually became the best box machine operator the company had ever seen, I think. Even though it was a repetitive boring job, I found ways to make it challenging and satisfying. Time went fast.

I don’t run a boxing machine any more, of course. I work at a profession that many people would consider to be rewarding. But I’m doing my job as Editor In Chief in the same way that I performed the tasks of Boxing Machine Operator; I’m trying to be the best I can be at what I do. I’m continually looking for ways to be good and to do good. I expect my job to be happy and satisfying.

So of course I’m achieving success by Dale Carnegie’s definition! With such an attitude, how could I miss?