People who believe in success at any price usually end up paying a very high price but it is never too late to take footprints along a new path and make a new person out of your old self; if we seek with the soul and see with the heart we will discover along our life journey that wealth is best measured in family, friends and laughter

Mirror Image

As he looked at his reflection in the entrance hall mirror, on his way out the door to attend a family function, his mind took him back to his past and troubled life when his second ‘late-in-life’ career seemed to be at a dead end.

For the previous seven years he had been training as an actor and struggling to get his first big break, but every time he came close to acing the audition and snagging a significant role, something would go wrong and he would face rejection again and again. He tried every avenue he could think of, including changing agents, and although the change had secured him more parts, it still hadn’t gotten him the roles he needed to become a ‘star’.  He was a professional, hard-working, dedicated actor, and he believed that he had talent - this also having been confirmed by others in the profession - but because no major roles had yet to come his way, he started to think that he simply wasn’t meant to be a well-known actor and so decided to come to terms with what he thought was the obvious - he was a failure. 

Now, though,  facing him in the mirror was the image of a man who had handled many trials and tribulations, head-on, in his search for professional success. He had, after much soul-searching over the past year, learned to come to terms with the fact that he was not just an actor. He had been, and still was, good at acting, but that was not who he truly was - it was only what he did to make a living. He had finally stopped identifying himself by his career. He had learned, through trial and error, that he needed to discover an identity that was beyond his work, and that way, success and/or failure in his career did not spell success or failure in his life.

In his world of inverted values, he had been fed the belief that a man is called successful because he makes a lot of money. A man may have led a very self-centered life and shown no character at all but if he did well at his career the majority of people considered him successful. He now understood, though, that true success can only be achieved when we succeed in our personal relationships. If we are a caring friend in times of need, if we treat our families well, if we are supportive and understanding partners/spouses and devoted, caring parents, and if we contribute to our community, not just with money, but with time and action, then we can be considered a success - and those who have developed happy relationships are truly the real success stories. 

He believed now that as long as he identified himself with his profession, as in “I am an actor’ or ‘I am an IT Business Professional’ - he would be pinning his success as a person solely on his career status. But this was no longer true for him, and his creed was now that he would not allow himself to be defined by his job/his profession. What he did to make a living was very different from what he did to make a life. Work was what he needed to make a living, but to make a life he must love, connect, serve a purpose and find meaning.

He smiled at the mirror image of his face, as it now reflected his new calmness and confidence. His thoughts reiterated that he may have been good in his previous profession and in his acting. Or maybe not. But it was now more important for him to be good at being human - as when it came to being human, a failed businessman could be the greatest success story and/or a struggling actor could be the shining ‘star’.