Lesson Twenty-Seven: Wisdom from Dad

My father is a self-made man. He started his career pushing a broom at CKDX, a TV station in Winnipeg,Manitoba in 1966.He then graduated to cameraman, shooting evening news for the CBC. He quit that, started his own business while in his 40s, saddled with three kids and two mortgages, and retired 9 years later, not quite rich, but close enough.

I consider him a success.

“Let me tell you about Stan,” he told me one day. “I knew Stan from my CBC days, where we were in the union together. After I left to start my company, I’d see Stan every so often.He’d always ask me, ‘How’s business?’ If I told him business was bad his face would light up. If I said business was good he’d become sullen.”

“Why?” I asked.

“If you achieve any amount of success in life, some people will resent you for it. I took some risks and I made out all right. Stan stayed put, never took a risk, and now he hates me for it because he wishes he had.”

“That’s not very big of him,” I said.

“No, it’s not, but you are a mirror to the fears of others.They hold themselves up against you. Your failures are their victories, your successes their misery. These kind of people don’t take pleasure in anyone else’s success.”

He went on: “There is an important lesson here. These kind of people believe there is only a certain amount of success to go around. They feel your success takes away from theirs. They’re completely wrong. Successful people surround themselves with other successful people. Don’t ever begrudge another person’s success. It will only help lead you to your own.”



Principles of Persuassion by Shane Spark