Do the math

Do the math

Lasting success is achieved by addition and multiplication, not subtraction or division. If your winning depends on causing someone else to lose, that success is doomed to eventually run out. By contrast, when your success is built by creating new value for the world around you, it can continue to grow indefinitely.

Do the math. When you continue subtracting and dividing, you soon reach the very real limit of zero. But you can continue adding and multiplying with no such limit.

Certainly it is a competitive world. Yet the most successful competitors are those who do not depend on the competition, those who make the whole pie bigger instead of fighting over a single slice.

Real success and real value can never be wrested away from another. Your success and fulfillment must be built by you. Focus on the competition, and that competition will throw obstacles in your path at every turn. Focus on creating new value, and the world will enthusiastically push you forward.

-- Ralph Marston