What do we mean by “success”? This is what I said in my book, “Creating a World That Works for All”:
“Success” doesn’t mean I’ve saved an endangered species or cleaned up a toxic waste dump or fed hungry children. Success means awakening in myself a Spirit that can help make a better life for others. Success means I have acted in the world as though I were a part of it, not apart from it. Success means becoming conscious of and faithful to my values and to my soul. (p. 151)
This is not the typical model of “success” that is touted by our society. The mainstream model of “success” is very simple: Success means that you have more money. If you have more money this year than you did last year, you are successful. If you have more money than the guy next door, it means that you are more successful than the guy next door.
Money is an amazingly efficient measure of SOMETHING. But not success. Not spirituality. Not your worthiness as a human being. If we can begin the process of learning real “success”, we can begin the process of creating, especially for our young people, a model of success. With that, we can begin to change society. To create a world that works for all.
I believe most of us in this society are hungry. I also believe that most of us in this society don’t know how to be fed. The thing that sends me halfway around the world, to work for peace in steamy Sri Lanka, is a hunger. It’s a hunger to see a world that actually works for everyone. It’s the thing that gets me out of bed in the morning and helps me to work until late every night, my normal working day.
Having the hunger, the drive, for something different, something better, is good. Not knowing how to feed that hunger leads to a spiritual starvation, a shriveling of the soul. This condition of spiritual starvation leads us to try to fill the hunger by inappropriate means.
For example: if I don’t know how to fill my hunger, someone can come up to me and say, “The way to fill your hunger is to snort this white powder, and then you will be fulfilled”. Or, someone can come along and say, “The way to feed your hunger is for you to get more money”. So, I’ll work harder on my job, or I’ll work harder trying to steal someone else’s money.
If I don’t know how to feed my hunger, I may engage in many types of self-destructive behavior. Alcohol, drugs, suicide, casual violence. Things that make our GDP go UP. This is one of the reasons why suicide is the highest cause of mortality among teenagers, the reason that suicide is at epidemic proportions in every country around the world. People don’t know how to feed their hunger.
Turn the television on, turn it to any channel. While there is plenty on television to tell a young person how to spend their money, there is nothing there that will tell a young person how to feed their hunger. There is nothing there to tell a young person, “This is the way of success for your soul. This is the way of success that leads to success for all”.
Here’s a question: how many of us plan to live forever? All of us are going to leave our bodies. The thing that we have to consider is NOT how we can preserve our lives, not how can we stick around here as long as possible. The thing that we must consider is: how can we live a good life? So that, when the moment of death comes, it is not a moment of panic, clinging and denial, but a moment of surrender and celebration. A moment where we can say: I did what I was meant to do here. I lived up to my calling.
In our society today, there is a disconnect between our heart-felt aspirations and the expressions of those aspirations in our political, governmental, business and cultural institutions. The problem isn’t that they lack the capacity to understand. From my travels around the world, I have come to believe that the majority of people in all countries understand and want inclusivity. It’s that the majorities don’t seem to be able to get their butts in gear. The majorities are either protesting or going along with the actions of some very, very vocal minorities. Very separatist, exclusivist minorities.
I think it is time for each of us to come to an understanding: rather than trying to change our “leaders”, it’s time for you to be the leader. Each one of us has to be the person who says, “We’ve had enough of this. We’ve gone too far in this direction. I see another vision for our society. I see a vision for a global society, the common society.”
There is a “common society” made up of McDonald’s, MTV and The Gap. That’s the type of globalization that we need less of.
There is another type of globalization. There are small groups all over this country and all over the world. They are working for a world that works for all. They have a vision of this. They see this as their spiritual quest. This is way beyond politics, or economics.
For the first time in human history, we have the ability to create a global society, one united NOT by American television, NOT by American weapons, but united by a common set of values, a set of values common to all humanity. It doesn’t matter whether the values were first spoken by Lord Buddha, or Lord Jesus, or Lord Rumi, or Lord Lao Tzu, or anyone else. The source doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is the unity of the values.
The question for you: to what are you devoted? To what are you willing to sacrifice? This is an important question for our young people. Our younger people are looking for something worthy of their sacrifice. They are looking for something upon which to test, to measure themselves. They are looking for a sense of identity.
What we, the true leaders of tomorrow, must say is this: there is something that needs your devotion, your sacrifice. That is: the goal of creating a world that works for all. That is the goal of creating our first global human society.
If the creation of an inclusive society is not the goal that motivates you to get out of bed in the morning, what IS your goal?
How you answer that question will determine your success in this world.
Sharif Abdullah’s books include: Creating a World that Works for All (1999), The Power of One: Authentic Leadership for Turbulent Times (1991), and Seven Seeds for a New Society (2009).
To learn more about Sharif and his work, please visit: www.commonway.org