I know a lot of very successful people and I’ve been observing them. I’ve always been interested them. They’re always busy – as if they don’t have a life, right? However, they do. If you look at their schedule they have tons of meetings, dinners, and other social events to attend. They almost always have families, and even play sports. They stay on top on a lot of things like news, trends in their field of work, have a torrent of incoming money, and success. It’s a pretty picture, right? I bet a lot of us would love to be in their shoes, but only a few of us think of what is required from us in order to maintain that kind of lifestyle.

Many of these people are very efficient in communication. This means that if someone asks them a question, they’ll listen carefully and answer that specific question. For example, if they think about reaching out to someone for something, they usually do so right away, rather than wait. They have respect for others’ time and life, instead of taking things for granted. They’re always polite no matter how bad their day was. They always respond to emails and texts, even if they’re not feeling well. By the way, you’d never be able to guess if they’re ever sick — they hardly ever show it.

Now I invite you to look around. Many of us would love to have a life like that, right? It will boost our ego for sure –  success. The feeling that we are needed, that somebody wants something from us, and we can actually give it.

A lot of people have a twisted sense of power and ego.

That’s where all of a sudden we grow up in our own eyes and become so important and so arrogant that the universe starts taking things away from us.

But that is a different story.

Right now I am talking about a different topic. Recently, I’ve seen too many people around me who want or pretend to have something close to that lifestyle, but are unwilling to do the necessary work and maintenance. I’m not really sure if they understand that there is some maintenance that’s required of them every day, even every hour.

We all know people who will smile widely and tell us everything is great when they come in into the room. Then when you communicate with them you find them giving you weird answers, as if they didn’t hear what you said. Unless you don’t really care if they respond to you at all, you keep on talking to him. That’s also possible. But I’m talking about everyday, healthy interactions. They don’t listen to you, but instead they have a whole movie in their head, one full of presumptions and assumptions when they talk. I found myself puzzled during those interactions, thinking where I went wrong with my words. It took me some time to understand that it’s not me, it’s their inability to listen and pay attention to another person. Because it’s not them that’s so  interesting to talk. See the difference between this person and a successful one?

Here’s another situation: if a person gets sick, oh my god – we’re going to hear the whole nine yard of their story and misery. Even though their sickness might not be that bad, these people need the spotlight. See the difference as well?

So the question is: why do so many people envy others’ successes but when push come to shove, they prefer to victimize themselves rather than take responsibility for their lives and act like an adult?

It doesn’t appeal them to be on top of their life, to serve others rather than being obsessed with what’s in it for them. Some of them quit communicating when they’re either sick or happy. Many of them are too lazy to communicate properly that it’s not even funny. Unfortunately, those attributes are imbedded in a majority of people. That’s why we don’t have too many successful people, only some.

What kind of a society do we live in? When I think about it, when I look around I ask myself, “what do I want?” I like success, and I do want to be free from financial burden, but I’m willing to take responsibility for my life. I’m willing to serve others while forgetting about myself, I’m willing to wake up every day and do all the necessary maintenance. I’m willing to do all of that because at the end of the day it is only me who feels satisfaction and derives benefits from all my actions that were done earlier in the day. And you know what? It’s hard, trust me, when you start learning how to be on call at all times. However, it’s worth it. Every minute, every effort. Try it and share your success with me.