For some reason we’re in a place as a society where success is generally measured by money – I disagree but we are where we are.
That view that “success = money” then means that people running companies use often money as their primary guide post – again, I disagree but I have other guides to rely on 🙂
I think this use of money as the primary guide for decision making leads to a lot of bad decisions. I’m not talking about from a spiritual or environmental perspective, but a purely business one. I’ve been fortunate enough to watch my industry go through a number of life phases and it is very clear that the companies who were only focused on money aren’t here any more.
I used to think I was the only one who thought this way. But Venture Capitalist Fred Wilson is on the same track albeit he comes at it from “what can you control”:
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Measure yourself on whether your employees are happy. Measure yourself on whether your customers are happy. Measure yourself on how much free cash flow your business is generating. Measure yourself on how your brand is known and appreciated around the world. Measure yourself on how your spouse and children feel about you when you come home from work each day. You control all of those things, at least to some degree.
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If you want to know how successful you are, think about how how happy you are.
If you want to know how successful a company is, sit in the office and observe how much joy there is.
