You’re stuck in a job for years with no pay raise and suddenly a co-worker tells you they are getting a promotion or may tell you they found a new job and are going to get paid double or more and what do you do? is just put on a little fake smile and say “Wow, I’m happy for you”, deep down inside you’re telling yourself “pinche vato” and as soon as you go home you go tell your significant other the chismeh “pues adivina que, a la juanita le van pagar mas, no pues no me gusta eso” and then what happens? You come to work the next day all bitter and moody. Being jealous is typical of human behavior, feeling left out, the feeling on why good things don’t happen to you, it’s normal don’t worry. So I’ll share a few things I’ve learned in life to get through all these feelings of jealousy and envy.
What is success? Many people associate success with the amount of money you have in the bank and for the most part that could be true, but that is just their definition of success. Success can come in many forms and of course will vary from person to person. To me success is choosing your own path and sticking to it and not worry about what others are doing. I have friends who are rich but live miserably each day and friends who live paycheck by paycheck and barely can pay their rent who seem to be the happiest of people I know. If you can find a balance between those two then I think you are a very successful person.
Do not be a hater. In life, there’s always going to be people who are smarter than you, people richer than you, people who are better at doing something than you and that is just the way it is. For example, I consider myself a pretty smart guy, I know computers very well and have a grasp for technology but I have a friend of mine who I grew up with who is even smarter than me and makes more money than I do but I don’t feel envious or hateful because he knows more or makes more, I accept it and live my own life.
Find a mentor. My same friend who is “smarter” than me happens to be my mentor, instead of trying to compete against him, I ask him for advise, after all if he knows more than I do, why not ask him for help or try to find out everything he knows so that I can learn and apply those things that I learned into my professional life. So if you know someone that does something better than you, why not look up to that person and try to learn everything they know? All you have to do is ask.
Go to college or not? This depends on you. A lot of people ask me, “Frank you seem to be fairly rounded with just about everything, should I go to school?” I can’t give you a specific answer and don’t want to give anybody the wrong advise but here’s what I think, find something you want to do and love doing it and ask yourself do you need to school to accomplish what you want to do? If so, there’s your answer. Whatever you decide to do, make sure you give it your best and you’ll be alright.
In the end, success is whatever you make it out to be. Set short terms for yourself and stick to them and little by little those short term goals that you set will amass to a long term goal. Don’t worry about others because someone else’s happiness is not your own happiness.
