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What My Stepfather’s Final Days Taught Me About Real Success
It exposed a truth the world tries to ignore.
Growing up, no one ever sat me down to explain what success meant in life.
Sure, I was taught what success looked like in the world’s eyes.
Like most, I absorbed the idea that success meant getting a good education, landing a well-paying job, making a lot of money, buying a house, owning the right things, and checking off all the shiny experiences life had to offer.
If we achieve all that, we’re told, we’ve lived a successful life.
But is that truly what success is?
If we approach death with an impressive financial portfolio, a paid-off mortgage, a trail of passport stamps, a long marriage, and well-raised children, does that mean we lived most powerfully?
Bigger is Better
I remember the final weeks of my stepfather’s life.
He was a man who, for most of his years, embodied what the world calls success. He had money, traveled often, owned beautiful things, and carried himself confidently as someone who’d earned his place at the top.
His ego was massive in the (mostly) nicest way possible. But he clung to titles, status, and the…
