How do we measure success?

Written by Suresh Sadagopan

Success means so many different things to people. Hence, there are different yardsticks for success. We tend to go with the popular, accepted measures of success and try to fit in. That could result in many of us aspiring for emblems of success that conform to societal expectations. Hence, what we consider as a measure of success may not square with what we would define as success, on our own!

Success is a measure decided by others, satisfaction is a measure decided by yourself, goes a quote on success. How so true?

As a social animal, we are greatly influenced and shaped by what the society expects of us. We may not like it, but most times, we tend to conform and belong due to the pressure from our immediate circle.

Leave alone success, even our everyday behaviour is shaped to a large extent by the society we live in and what is acceptable there and what is frowned upon. For instance, introvertedness is not seen very kindly in most societies, with the result introverted people are almost seen as maladjusted or even as anti-social!

Coming back to the definition of success, it is defined by money, material things like home, cars etc. and other indicators like the schools/ colleges that one’s children attend, the vacations we take, the places we visit etc. Apart from money, power is also a vaunted indicator of success. Money and power are interconnected – power is derived mostly from money and sometimes power can make a lot of money! That is the reason why money looms large as a marker of success.

Apart from these, it is fame that is seen as a success indicator. Today, in the world of Social Media (SM), that fame is measured in terms of likes and followers. People are so conscious of the likes and followers on their channels that they will do anything for it! Many people spend a lot of time, effort and a fortune to come up with professional content, including videos. SM is seductive and highly addictive!

There is another set of people who identify themselves and their success with their money – but in an unexpectedly different way! These people are obsessed with their investments and portfolios. For them, their success is defined in terms of their money and how big it is! Ironically, we find that people with big portfolios, that is more than enough to achieve all their goals, are prone to this!

Even if the portfolio is doing well, they want to see if they can somehow optimise the portfolio for even better performance. They want to grow it bigger, faster – not because that is needed to achieve any specific goal, but because that is how they measure their success! They look at their portfolios all the time and tend to make frequent calls and changes. Money is their identity, their calling card, the tail that is wagging the dog! Many would deny that they are like this. But, as a Financial Advisor, every fourth person we come across is somewhat like this.

Ironically, this obsession with fine-tuning the portfolio and optimising it actually harms their cause. We have seen that happening in so many cases. That is so because the frequent changes interrupt their participation in long-term growth cycles as also adding to costs and taxes. Chasing fads and obsessing over returns, seldom works.

As advisors, we have seen that with discipline, regularity and patience most people will be able to achieve important goals and create adequate wealth for the future – without the need to get obsessed with their portfolio. Asset performance is cyclical, volatile and unpredictable for the most part – especially those like equity. Hence, performance of these assets is an uncontrollable parameter. We need to instead focus on the controllable ones like disciplined, regular investments and having a portfolio that is in line with one’s risk profile and goals.

It is important for investors to get a sense of proportion about wealth and a certain detachment from it so that the wealth can grow in the absence of constant tinkering with the portfolio.

Life has so much to offer and we can pursue and find satisfaction and success in many areas. We all need to find out what will delight us, be invigourating and uplifting as also give us a sense of purpose and fulfilment. This is true for everyone and is even more pertinent for someone who is in the retirement phase.

Success is after all a personal feeling of having achieved something, being happy about oneself and feeling good. Success needs to be defined in our own way. That way we control what we want to do, achieve and feel good about it. We do not need anyone else’s template. Success is personal. Why should we cede that control?