How I Succeeded in Business Yet Failed In Life

I used to measure my success as a businessperson by how well I could outsmart the market and competition. Armed with sufficient data and an understanding of human nature, it wasn’t too hard to create winning solutions.

Yet I wasn’t happy. Instead, I was filled with dread and anxiousness. The source of which would elude me for many, many years.

I eventual learned that what I valued as one of my most finely-honed skills was actually my biggest deterrent.

And that’s judgment.

My ability to judge everything around me - and myself - to such a degree is what enabled me to navigate the business world.

If I had a chip on my shoulder, I would prove a naysayer wrong. If I could accurately judge a company’s weakness - which really meant I was judging the people behind the company - then I’d know how it could be fixed.

And if I judged myself with enough criticism, I’d be able to generate enough motivational fuel to keep me working 100-hour weeks for years on end.

Judgment was the best arrow in my quiver.

And it made me miserable.

I might have been smart, but I was definitely not wise.

I really love this line from A Course in Miracles: “Wisdom is not judgment; it is the relinquishment of judgment.”

By letting go of judgment - which doesn’t mean letting go of analysis - but by letting go of the emotional, psychological, value-based judgment of myself and others, an extraordinary weight was lifted from my shoulders.

There is nothing more freeing, more sublime, and more joyful than the release of all judgment. It’s a practice worth cultivating over and over.

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