The Hidden Price of Success
It is easy to celebrate the rewards and accolades that come with success. Difficult to get cheers for the toil that led to success. It is difficult to make friends during the toiling phase of success. Friends appear when the toil is over.
I was listening to a podcast interviewing a Software Engineer who has worked on a remarkable project and he told his origin story. The pivot point was when he realized to achieve a certain goal, he had to wake up earlier than anyone in his home just to carve out time to focus his mind and energy before the rest of the house awoke.
One of the realities I am currently living and learning from as a family man is the fact that - Time and Opportunities wait for no one. If I want to achieve anything marginally remarkable, I have to make some sacrifices. Since Time is the currency in which we trade in, we have to come up with formulas to operate with Time.
Make time for family, make time for health, make time for friendship, make time for spiritual growth, make time to build memories with kids, make time for sleep, make time for good food, make time to rest. Every time you don’t invest in an aspect of life, you lose the time forever and may not always be fortunate enough to recover said time.
I also know that sometimes you cannot manufacture free time. And there is a limit at which sacrifice becomes detrimental to the whole essence of your living. Understanding this means, you may have to reduce your expectations. When I was younger, I could stay up all night coding and still make it to work for 9 a.m, cheerful and upbeat. Today, however, my nights could be interrupted several times by the kids and while at work, I am struggling mentally and just praying for the day to be over.
Sometimes the biggest fear on the path to success is wondering if you making the right sacrifice and how much of it is worth it? Will this pan out. Everything is a gamble. The trick is knowing when to fold and when to hold on (I don’t play enough card games to really use that analogy). It is way easier to justify and feel content with the toil when the reward arrives but before you see the light at end of this journey, there are hurdles to climb and adverse winds that would throw you off.
In conclusion, success is a delicate balance between sacrifice, time management, and realistic expectations. The journey is often lonely and filled with doubts, especially during the toiling phase. While we must be willing to make sacrifices for our goals, we should also be mindful of maintaining a sustainable balance that doesn’t compromise our overall well-being and family life. The key is not just in making sacrifices, but in making smart choices about which sacrifices are truly worth it, and being prepared for the possibility that some gambles may not pay off. Yet, it’s these very challenges and uncertainties that make the eventual success, when it comes, all the more meaningful and worthy of celebration.
The path to success is not just about the destination, but about managing the journey in a way that preserves what matters most while still pursuing our ambitions. It’s about finding that sweet spot where sacrifice meets sustainability, and where the pursuit of success doesn’t come at the cost of life’s other precious aspects.