View Full Version : "Success" vs. Significance
I just finished an article (paper media--no url available) which touched on the differences between being "successful" and being significant.
In short, it states that having great "success" in what you "do" on a daily basis is by far overshadowed by the premise of being significant to those around you on a daily basis. Making large sums of money and having 'things' as opposed to not having them, is not being successful.
Being significant can be directly correlated to being successful based only on your chosen field of expertise and the influence you have on others for the greater good, however, and nowhere does that ideology fit more precisely than in the SOF and SF communities.
First, allow me to thank each of the QP's who consistantly take great strides to be successful here by being significant. Your input and guidance is, absolutely, the cream of the crop.
Secondly, thank you for your significance by going places and doing things that many others would shrink from...those things that impact our world on a global scale, changing the lives of countless people by carrying your beliefs and honor to the far reaches of the globe.
You ARE successful because you are significant. Your examples inspire us all.
Thank you,
Mick
Cougar6zulu
01-12-2010, 10:34
I am glad to see this thread, I was just thinking of this. I am not SF (yet) but am constantly harassed by people that tell me I have impossible standards. That I care to much about winning or being successful. I agree that significance is more important than success, however, how does one know when his or her success is NOT SIGNIFICANT? We choose a goal based on our wants, needs, moral obligations, technical data and so forth. If our goal is 10 then why is 9 OK? I have been in the Army for 12 years active AON and find my self alone more than not in this regard. I am sure that other people have the same problem everyday and am looking for different points of view.
"TANK GOD AND GIVER OF LIFE TO ALL THINGS MECHANICAL"
I am glad to see this thread, I was just thinking of this. I am not SF (yet) but am constantly harassed by people that tell me I have impossible standards. That I care to much about winning or being successful. I agree that significance is more important than success, however, how does one know when his or her success is NOT SIGNIFICANT? We choose a goal based on our wants, needs, moral obligations, technical data and so forth. If our goal is 10 then why is 9 OK? I have been in the Army for 12 years active AON and find my self alone more than not in this regard. I am sure that other people have the same problem everyday and am looking for different points of view.
"TANK GOD AND GIVER OF LIFE TO ALL THINGS MECHANICAL"
For the want of a nail, the shoe was lost,
for the want of a shoe, the horse was lost,
for the want of a horse, the soldier was lost,
for the want of a soldier, the war was lost,
for the want of,...
Everything is significant, everything SF does is significant and strategic,
including, how we pack a ruck sack. The tasks SF does, few can do.
Hold to your 'standards', the world will be better if you do.
You are significant, thanks for showing up.
WD
p.s., but I'd rather be lucky than good.
MackallResident
01-12-2010, 11:05
I appreciate this thread as well, and I imagine that I would have enjoyed the article also. I have seen far too many "successful" leaders thus far in the Army, and most hold no "significance" in my memory.
The QP's here and everywhere have without a doubt a very significant profession, albeit thankless. So needless to say, thanks again!
It is never about the wagon, but the horses or mules that pull it, that fade away after their work is done and they are too worn to trod on. You gentlemen, in my mind, have seen the world in a way that the sheep ignore, or has been edited for posterity on the "hill."
I also appreciate Wet Dog's comment about showing up, self elimination is a killer, and if you don't try, you don't know.
Cougar6zulu
01-12-2010, 12:50
PSS you cant train to be lucky!
"TANK GOD AND GIVER OF LIFE TO ALL THINGS MECHANICAL"
HowardCohodas
01-12-2010, 12:57
PSS you cant train to be lucky!
This is contrary to all my experience. The more you train, the more you are prepared to take advantage of situations the untrained will not recognize. And the untrained will shrug it off to you just being lucky.
Cougar6zulu
01-12-2010, 13:17
Honestly...I never thought of it that way. To me that is just being prepared. Lucky.. is a favorable outcome when you are not prepared. Then again... perhaps that is the motto of the 'UN PREPARED' !
"TANK GOD AND GIVER OF LIFE TO ALL THINGS MECHANICAL"
craigepo
01-12-2010, 13:44
Luck is where preparation meets opportunity.
Luck is where preparation meets opportunity.
I agree, case in point. I had an opportunity to run a 10K in Raliegh, Durham area. I ran in a Army Brown T-shirt, (name stenciled on chest, SSG Blah, Blah, Blah...), Black Army shorts, green sock rolled down over Army issue Jungle boots.
I placed in the top 5%, erned a 4 day pass from the CO-SGM. I felt lucky I didn't catch the 'cold bug' moving thru our AO.
Yep - it is strange the way the ignorant and inexperienced so often and so undeservedly succeed when the informed and the experienced fail.
- Mark Twain
And so it goes...
Richard's $.02 :munchin
HowardCohodas
01-12-2010, 15:24
Yep - it is strange the way the ignorant and inexperienced so often and so undeservedly succeed when the informed and the experienced fail.
- Mark Twain
And so it goes...
Richard's $.02 :munchin
Two answers:
1. Statistics: Law of large sets.
2. The exception proves the rule.
:D :munchin
It has been nearly two years since my first post of this subject. I have, unfortunately, seen far too much of the successfully in-significant in my three years back on active duty in the 'regular' side of the Army.
That's not to say that everyone I've come across has qualified for that negative label. Just that far too many fall into the role of "respect me because I'm SGT, SSG, SFC, SGM so-and-so" and the soldiers doing the job, getting their hands dirty, are left out in the cold while these 'successful leaders' are sitting high and mighty in their comfortable office chairs in climate controlled environments...the so-called 'successful' raining down a major negative impact on the truly significants of the day.
I'm a bit disgruntled, yet hopeful, because I've been taught to stick to my guns, no matter what, and that when I'm wrong admit it up front. So, I plod on, and forging ahead as I make something better of myself, I hope that I am following the examples set forth here to the best of my ability so that I can, in fact, continue to be successful by being significant in the appropriate venues of my life.
I have been blessed with an incredible wife, four teenage sons, the eldest now enlisted in the Army as well, and my health is improving since my surgeries last year. So this is, once again, a major "Thank You!" to all who post here and have had significant input into my life, in keeping me on track when I've waivered, and for keeping the faith in so staunch a manner.
In short, You Guys Rock!
Regards,
Mick