View from the Summit

Have you ever heard the story of Buridan’s A**? The short version is that a donkey who was both hungry and thirsty was placed between a bale of hay and a bucket of water. Being equally hungry and thirsty, and being equidistant from the hay and the water, the donkey couldn’t make a rational choice of which form of sustenance to select. The donkey dies of both hunger and thirst because he couldn’t choose whether to eat the food or drink the water first.

If you take a moment to sit back and think about the most successful people in your life, the ones you truly admire, and the ones you call when you need advice about a difficult situation, you’ll probably notice that they all have something in common.

These are people that are driven to soak in as much knowledge as possible. They are lifelong learners.

They read books, travel, visit museums, and pick the brains of people who have more knowledge and experience than them in different fields. They strive to gain a broad perspective on life that helps them communicate effectively with people of all different backgrounds, ages, and personality types.

There is a fine line between healthy pride and arrogance. As humans, it’s difficult to reach high levels of success and not let that voice in that says “I did this. I was successful at this because I’m better than this person or that person.” When you hear that voice in your head, you have to tell it to leave. That is unhealthy pride talking and it can’t have a place in your life. That type of pride is a parasite that eats away at your character. Those arrogant, haughty, boastful emotions are the things that destroy people who had potential to do great things.

In my journey to entrepreneurial success and the View from the Top that I enjoy today, I learned that there are two emotions which will distort your vision quickly and derail your success if you let them control your actions. These two emotions are fear and jealousy.