I’ve spent years in the financial services industry. I’ve noticed that the definition of success varies from person to person. Some definitions lean more towards a financial measurement. Others tend to gravitate towards having positive relationships or meaningful experiences in life. At any rate, whatever your definition of success may be, there are some consistent truths of success that breach all of them.

#1. More time DOES NOT equate to more productivity. Whatever task you have been employed to do, the key to the success of it lies in your ability to do it effectively and efficiently in the LEAST AMOUNT OF TIME POSSIBLE. “Time is money” and this is true for every task you set your mind to do. We all have a finite amount of time we spend on this planet. Every task you use to expend that time in an effort to generate a positive and expected result would only be improved if you did it in less time. Seek ways to do what you need to do, what you are employed to do, in less time. Anything done in less time that accomplishes the same result equals success.

People foolishly and unwittingly equate hours worked in a week as a badge of honor. It is, in fact, a badge of failure. If it takes you 40, 50, 60+ hours to accomplish what someone can do in 10 hours, it is you that needs to change the way you think. Financial “success” is the ability to have more money earned, made, acquired, utilizing less time to create it. This is why people are so keen on retirement. For most people, the concept of retirement means you have enough money to pay all your monthly expenses and you don’t have to go to work. Based on that definition, if a person can build passive income high enough to cover their monthly expenses they can essentially retire. At 35? 45? 55? There is no specific age that this can happen. You don’t have to wait for the government to tell you when it’s acceptable for you to stop working. You just have to cover your monthly expenses with the smallest amount of effort and time possible. Get it? Look for ways to work less, NOT more. 

#2 A nice house, a nice car, a nice boat, etc. with a nice monthly payment IS NOT success. I’ve lost count of the nice kitchen tables I’ve sat at to review their finances only to see portfolios that were literally bogged down in bad debt. If you don’t own it, it’s not really an asset. It’s a liability. You may look pretty out on the lake on that boat, you may look successful to your friends that you invite over for dinner in your home, but ownership is the image you are portraying in all of those things…and unless and until those things are actually paid for: You don’t have that. I have found that people tend ta do better financially when those things are paid for and they are owned. Especially in retirement. So, buy within your means, and pay things off to have true ownership. A person who owns a $500 car that is paid for outright is more successful in my mind than a person who has a $50,000 car that is making payments on it. Ima a big fan of hard numbers. True ownership provides the hard numbers needed to be accurate. Accuracy equals success in financial planning. 

#3 The life cycle of an Ant. You’re an Ant. You have a life cycle. One that is predictable, quantifiable, measurable. There are things that will happen in your life that are not unique, different, or special to anyone else in society. In fact, it is quite ordinary. Some day you will die and what you have acquired, if anything, will be distributed to those you love. At least that is the hope. Given that, it’s in your best interest, to address the obvious: Your life cycle. Where are you at in it, anyway? Are you a Builder? Are you a Accumulator? Are you in Spend down? I have found, that the people who manage these life cycles the most efficiently and effectively are the ones that are actually aware of them. People tend to do better with them when they have an idea of what they are going thru based on other similar examples. Is that you? If not, maybe it should be. Success is knowing where you’re at in your life cycle.

There is NO SUCH THING as a life cycle that is “better” or “worse” than the other. Each have their merits. But if you don’t know where you’re at, you have nothing to gauge your success on, now do you? Take the time to determine where you are at in your life cycle. The knowledge of it will give you a good gauge to determine your financial viability and it will also provide a bit of a reprieve to some of the emotions you are experiencing. You may find that much of what you are going thru is perfectly normal. 

#4 Quality is better than Quantity. In an age where society celebrates people with the most Likes, the most comments, and the most followers, as your life cycle progresses, you’ll notice that the volume of people and things have less meaning and carry less value then the things that are few in measure. Success in relationships comes from the less of them, not more. Having those that know of you, is less important, than having those that know you. Get it?

True relationships are forged in fire. You HAVE to have gone thru some shit in order to know the people in your life that are solid. Everyone loves blue skies…but the ones that remain after a solid storm…those are the good cunts.

Successful relationships are born and bred in conflict. Without that, they are Fake News. Never mourn a relationship that ends due to the ending of blue skies.  You’ve been spared and you kno all you need ta kno.

#5 Credit is for poor people. Ever met someone who has had a copious amount of expendable cold hard cash and had bad credit or no credit? I have. Kinda weird when ya actually see it, but the fact remains, many rich people don’t have good credit because they don’t use it. They pay cash for everything; and in a world that revolves around Credit, that’s actually a bad thing. So, true Credit success, is ta not use or need credit. 

Now obviously, this is not the same as leveraging. People who use Credit to Leverage, have the money to purchase whatever it is they want ta purchase, they just utilize credit as a way to maximize tax loopholes, create more expendable income, or conserve resources, ect.

But the concept is still there: If you’re using credit to make the purchase because you can’t make the purchase without it?…That’s not a true measurement of success. Get it?

Copyright©2022 Jacob C. Larson All Rights Reserved

***In case you’re wondering, these are some of the things that I have come to kno to be true over the course of my life and my career. That doesn’t mean that I have “mastered” all of them. I am most definitely a “poor” person, who utilizes credit because I need it to make the purchase. I do spend a lot more time and effort than I would like doing what I need ta do ta make rent. I do however, actually own the things I own. Which is nothing. Because everything I own is in my kids names. I also, tend to “dig deep” in my relationships….which means my friends are few…even tho my friends lists on Social Media shows differently….

*****None of the above was meant or intended for you to “feel bad” about your life. Quite the opposite. I’ve listed the above as things you should give yourself a break over. I’ve been in the nice homes, I’ve ridden in the nice cars, I’ve seen the portfolios behind the curtain….People ARE full of shit. They broke AF. I met a couple that “owned” 13 houses because they went ta a seminar that encouraged them ta buy real estate. They had a Net Worth of over 10 million…and they couldn’t afford ta buy toilet paper. (True Story)

******One of the biggest problems we have in society lies in our inability to accurately assess how people are doing. It’s one of the many reasons why we glorify people that shouldn’t be glorified and why we envy people who shouldn’t be envied. Knowledge is power…and it kinda eliminates the bullshit. Unfortunately for me, after years doing what I’ve been doing…not much “impresses” me. I tend ta kno more about what people truly have on a financial level than they do. Which is sad in a way…cause for me, there are no Superheroes anymore. I’ve seen behind the curtain. I kno the Wizard of Oz is full of shit.