How I Succeeded in Business Yet Failed In Life

I used to measure my success as a businessperson by how well I could outsmart the market and competition. Armed with sufficient data and an understanding of human nature, it wasn’t too hard to create winning solutions.Yet I wasn’t happy. Instead, I was filled with dread and anxiousness. The source of which would elude me for many, many years.I eventual learned that what I valued as one of my most finely-honed skills was actually my biggest deterrent.And that’s judgment.My ability to judge everything around me - and myself - to such a degree is what enabled me to navigate the business world.If I had a chip on my shoulder, I would prove a naysayer wrong. If I could accurately judge a company’s weakness - which really meant I was judging the people behind the company - then I’d know how it could be fixed.And if I judged myself with enough criticism, I’d be able to generate enough motivational fuel to keep me working 100-hour weeks for years on end.Judgment was the best arrow in my quiver.And it made me miserable.I might have been smart, but I was definitely not wise.I really love this line from A Course in Miracles: “Wisdom is not judgment; it is the relinquishment of judgment.”By letting go of judgment - which doesn’t mean letting go of analysis - but by letting go of the emotional, psychological, value-based judgment of myself and others, an extraordinary weight was lifted from my shoulders.There is nothing more freeing, more sublime, and more joyful than the release of all judgment. It’s a practice worth cultivating over and over.Support the show