Beyond Material Wealth to Genuine Joy

What does success truly mean to you? Is it about amassing wealth or following the beaten path laid out by societal norms? Join me, Chris Anderson, on the Elevate Media Podcast as I challenge these conventional definitions and share my transformative journey. At one point, I believed success was about being universally liked and accumulating riches. But real success, as I've come to understand, is about pursuing your unique passion and staying true to your purpose, even if it means selling hot dogs on the corner of the street because it brings you joy and fulfillment.

Throughout this episode, I offer insights on how my perception of success evolved from seeking external validation to embracing personal fulfillment. Drawing from my own experiences, I discuss the importance of overcoming obstacles, enduring hardships, and redefining success on your terms. It’s not about the easy path but about finding meaning in what you do. Tune in to discover how those at the top often face their own struggles, and how you too can navigate your own path to a fulfilling and successful life.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the Elevate Media Podcast with your host, chris Anderson. In this show, chris and his guests will share their knowledge and experience on how to go from zero to successful entrepreneur. They have built their businesses from scratch and are now ready to give back to those who are just starting. Let's get ready to learn, grow and elevate our businesses. And now your host, chris Anderson.

Speaker 2: 0:24

Success to me looks like whatever you want it to and so, basically, it's your choice. Like what do you choose to do with your life, on your journey, because we're all unique, we're all created different and for a different purpose. But are you following what everyone else is just telling you to do Go to college, get that job, white picket fence, save up for retirement and then hopefully survive off of it? Or, in my mind, success being choosing your path, choosing what you do. Maybe it's not going to get you a bunch financially, maybe it's not the typical college and normal job, maybe it's not the typical college and normal job.

Speaker 2: 1:05

I always like to use the example. If selling hot dogs on the corner of the street is your passion and something that really brings you joy because you're serving others with a meal, but you're also being able to interact with people and make a difference, and you choose that path because that's your passion, that's what you're created to do and that's success, that truly is success is choosing your path, the one you're on, because it brings you joy, it fulfills you and it aligned with your passions.

Speaker 2: 1:39

I think before that, prior, at that point, success to me was being liked by everyone, um, and getting to a point, um, where you made a lot of money, basically, um, and so wanting to make everybody happy, wanted everyone to like me, uh, and just wanted to have a lot of money, uh, just for the sake of having money.

Speaker 2: 2:00

And and um, realize, towards the end of college, especially like that necessarily wasn't really success, um, I didn't, I hadn't come to my definition of the success yet by the end of college, but realize that we're we're never going to make everyone happy, uh or not, everyone's going to like us, no matter what. You can be a really great person, but there's still someone's going to not like you because you're a really great person and so you can't please everyone. And money, yes, it's a part of success and wealth, but it's not the sole purpose and it's not to accumulate, just to accumulate that money. And so, yeah, my definition definitely has changed throughout the years. It's hard to say from my perspective where it came from, but I think you just almost see those people who are on that level. They're doing really well and they have all this money coming in. And she's like.

Speaker 2: 2:57

That's what I want, because they have the freedom, they have the ability to do what they want, and it just looks so easy, it looks like a great life. And that's, I think, where we get it so jaded and wrong is it is not easy. Those people at the top who've gotten there sure you have the ones that are now in the New York Trust Fund, people who get a bunch of money but they don't last because they don't understand what it actually takes to get to that height, to that level, um, and sustain it, um. And so it comes with with uh, hardships and with obstacles and with, um, rough patches. It's not an easy journey. An easy journey is is following what everyone else does, uh, and that's going to school and getting a nine to five and just living, and there's nothing wrong with that, because maybe that is what you're meant to do, because you're going to make a vast impact that way.

Speaker 2: 3:50

But as far as like where that stems from, I think we see that and we almost have a jealous view of it, like, oh, I want that, all that money, because, look, they're so easy. But you don't know those people on top. They deal with things just like everyone else and sometimes at a at a higher magnitude, whether it be loneliness or depression. Um, if they don't have the right mindset about the level they're on After college. I mean, I was on that path just go to college, find a nine to five that fit, and I've always wanted to help people. And so I was always in sports, uh, through high school and everything.

Speaker 2: 4:23

so I wanted to be an athletic trainer uh, to stay in that realm of helping people physically, um, and then be able to grow in that. And I realized through those, those careers in the, in that the years that I was doing that it just wasn't fulfilling, I wasn't aligned with my purpose. I was kind of there like I love helping people, but it just wasn't truly doing what I was meant to do and it really wore on me and it just it kept pulling me in a different direction and so, starting to think about it, I was like was like what? And reading and listening to other people, like okay, what is what really is success like? And that's where it kind of just started to shape and mold in my mind like what is success to me? What's that? Look like, uh, in a red thing could grow rich, and that's where that hot dog vendor analogy came from. Um, like that's success? Like just choosing, based on your, your gifts and your talents and and what you're created to do.

Speaker 1: 5:24

Like okay, so I started thinking about that, and what is that to me?

Speaker 2: 5:29

and during my time as an athletic trainer, I loved talking to people about, like, their gifts and talents and passions and like, well, why don't you, why don't you pursue that? Like, why don't you put more time into that and go back and forth with them and then, and then show them like, and then discuss and build strategies like how they could in a visionary sense of it, and I loved it Like it got me so fired up so much energy like just joy, joy from it. And, um it, I loved it Like it got me so fired up so much energy. Like just joy, joy from it. Uh, and so I started looking back like that's, that's it, that's what I want to do and what I'm supposed to be doing. And uh, and so that's what led me to to my business and what I do now.

Speaker 2: 6:08

Right now, like I'm not where I want to be in business yet, like I still obviously have way way to go with my ultimate goals, but I would say right now I'm successful. Even though I'm not making the money I want to do or helping as many people as I want to help, or or X, y and Z, I'm still on the path that I've chosen because this is what, I believe, I've been created to do, and it's part of my passions. And so I would say, even right now, um would be a success. Uh, and, and that's what it is. I think it's an ever-changing journey, I think we're always improving, but you can be successful, uh, even if you're not at that that peak, that mountaintop, uh just yet.

Speaker 2: 6:49

And then after that, you're just, you're just building legacy, you're just building wealth, um, and building that life of fulfillment and continuing to expound on that um.

Speaker 2: 7:00

And so, yeah, I think, once you make that decision and you start taking the action towards, um, what you're created to do and your passions, I think you're success because you're taking what you're doing, what it takes to, to get to that ultimate goal. Because there are people who want success because they want glory and riches and fame, and that's their prerogative. But most of the people that I follow and I think that's what it goes back to and have looked up to they all give back and they all want to make a difference with what they're doing. Give back and they all want to make a difference with what they're doing. And that's that's why, with my business, is it's the goal is to impact a million lives, uh, one way or another, through whatever means the coaching, the podcast, uh, and so, yeah, I think it stems from the person, but I think a lot of people, especially entrepreneurs like, have some desire, um, to help and make a difference, taking it one step at a time.

Speaker 2: 7:56

That's huge. You can see the mountaintop, you can see where you're going, what you want to accomplish. Then you don't need to worry about it. Just focus on your steps, focus on the path you're taking and you'll get there. You don't have to keep staring at those million people waiting for them, because then you're going to get tripped up along the path instead of then. Okay, that's my ultimate goal. So how am I getting there? And focus on the journey there. Yeah, just one step at a time. You don't have to take the whole thing at once.

Speaker 1: 8:26

Thank you for listening to the Elevate Media Podcast. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review. See you in the next episode.