Success is not counted by how high you have climbed but by how many people you brought with you.

Success is not counted by how high you have climbed but by how many people you brought with you. – Dr Wil Rose

Yeah, climbing Mt Kilimanjaro would be great, but it would be even better if you could bring some friends along, wouldn’t it?

What does that mean?
I like quotes that challenge the usual thought process. Many, perhaps most, score how successful a person is based on what the person has managed to accumulate in their life. Dollars, influence, toys, friends, scaling of the heights, or whatever they happen to hold as valuable.

This quote challenges the conventional wisdom regarding the definition of success. This quote says the true measure of success is not in what you have accomplished or what you have done. The only thing that truly matters is how many people you have been able to bring with you to the top.

It implies that the definition of success has more to do with people and relationships than about any particular measure of conquest (isn’t that a fitting word for the list at the end of the first paragraph?). Helping others be successful requires a win-win strategy, not a win-lose strategy. In the end, I believe that a win-win strategy is the more successful path.

Why is bringing others with you important?  
How much fun is a party with no one else around? Even a dedicated introvert like myself finds that a rather poor excuse for a party (pity parties excepted). It is much more fun to bring your friends with, and enjoy your success as equals. At least I believe so.

There is an old expression that says “It’s lonely at the top.” I guess that’s what you get when you take the slash and burn path to the top. Everyone is an enemy to be vanquished, and the path behind you is to be blocked in order to prevent anyone from climbing up behind you.

However, if you pursue the win-win strategy (as much as others will work with you), not only will you have help on the way up, the others will (hopefully) be there to have your back in case you run into one of those other kind of people. I think that is a reassuring feeling, do you?

Where can I apply this in my life?
To me, I can’t imagine bringing anyone “up with me” without some sharing, some compassion, some trust, and some vulnerability. Some of these things are easier to do, depending on your personality, and that of the other person or people. While in an ideal world, you would do this with everyone, in the real world, sadly, there likely isn’t enough time to help all of them.

To me, this should be applied evenly, to everyone around you. Even to the grumpy, unsocial, or even unfriendly people. Once I found out that one person was unfriendly and even a bit vicious because they’d come out on the short end of the win-lose strategy far too often. They began to think everyone was out to get them.

So the next question that seems to follow would be to ask where in your life are you (or are you trying to be) successful? Grab some paper and list an item or two from each of the different aspects of your life. Take a moment and try to get something from work, from your social life, from your family life, or whatever is appropriate for your method of categorizing your life.

Once you have an idea of what aspects of you life are doing well, or will soon be doing well, consider what your strategy has been for each. Which are always win-win, and which are accomplished using a different strategy.

Consider what it would take to move everything that’s already in a win/lose strategy from a win/lose to a win/win strategy? Failing that can you at least find a win/not-lose-as-bad strategy?

The point is to find a way to help others win while you are climbing towards success. The point of the quote is to bring as many other people with you on your way up the ladder, right?

As always, different people will have to be approached in different manners, and there will always be people that are deliberately impossible to approach or include. While that doesn’t absolve us from trying, we must understand that some people just don’t share our values.

There will also be people insisting on you losing, either for their ego or personal satisfaction, or perhaps because they believe it’s the only way they can declare themselves to have won.

I would recommend doing what you can to help them, but also understand that there are limits to what you will be able to accomplish. Although sometimes you will surprise yourself.

By showing some kindness to the person referenced earlier, I was able to get them out of their shell and start enjoying life and work all over again. As always, your mileage will vary. But I believe it’s worth the risk.

From: Twitter, @DavidRoads
confirmed at : http://www.scribd.com/doc/50849016/10-Motivational-Quotes 2nd quote listed
Photo by michael 7601