If you were to ask a hundred people as to who is more likely to be more successful in life, selfish people or generous people, you would probably get more answers favoring the selfish people. And at face value, it seems like the obvious choice – selfish people are comfortable stepping over others, they only worry about their wellbeing and they do not waste time on helping others.
However, when you really start to think about it and when you actually take a look at the most successful people in the world, a different picture comes to focus. It turns out that generosity can be at the core of many a really successful person.
But why?
A Zen Approach
There is something fantastically liberating in being generous and not worrying about every single penny or every single idea you might have. When you start sharing things with others, you stop worrying about someone getting a hold of it.
By freeing yourself of the concerns and the constrictions of keeping all your possessions to yourself, you will become freer to pursue other passions and avenues that can easily lead to success. Generosity can open up a world for the person who adopts it.
Free yourself of the chains of selfishness and see the world for what it is.
A Happier Life
Sure, it is possible to become successful even when you are miserable, but it is far more difficult than achieving success with a smile on your face.
When every step you make towards success is agony, the journey is a much slower one. Also, once you achieve success and you look back at what you went through and where you are, feeling unhappy will take a lot out of this success of yours.
The reason why I am mentioning this is that it is a scientific fact generous people are happier people. Therefore, by being generous, you are becoming happier and as you are becoming happier, you are far more likely to succeed and actually enjoy your success once you achieve it.
Do not deprive yourself of true happiness and the success that comes with it.
A Connected Universe
It is all but impossible to succeed in anything without interacting with other people. Perhaps in art and then it is excruciatingly difficult to do it.
Wherever else you turn, success will depend on more people than just yourself. In short, it is a connected universe which reacts to every action and whose ripples may not reflect back to you immediately, but they will eventually.
When you are generous and you help others, this connected universe stores this in its collective memory and its positive reaction can positively affect your life when you least expect it. The concept of karma is perhaps the closest formal definition of this.
In addition to this, generous people are far more likely to form strong interpersonal relationships that will not be affected by unimportant factors. This is something that starts at a very early age and you can actually help your children become more generous and more “connected” by sending them to the finest early learning centre.
An Honest Confidence
The modern world has turned confidence into a travesty of what confidence was supposed to be. Everywhere you turn, there are articles about making yourself more confident.
These articles usually turn out to be about how to slap on a facade of confidence. The entire modern culture of forced confidence has turned this positive trait into a mockery.
Through generosity, a person can become truly confident. A generous person knows that confidence has nothing to do with superiority or power over others. Confidence is about being a realized, realistic person that makes the world a better place or at least tries to. In other words, a generous person.
This honest kind of confidence is the only kind of confidence that can actually influence people (never intimidate) and have a real effect on one’s path toward success.
Right Tracey ?
I agree with your thought ?
Thank you Amit!