Since my first article for the student blog back in January of 2013, in which I described my experience as a first year student in Les Roches Marbella, I have had the occasion to meet a lot of people during my internships in the W Barcelona, at the Club Med Resort Company, and of course while studying in Les Roches.
Sometimes I hear people, especially young guns who want to be successful in life, saying that they want to succeed in order to make their friends, previous colleagues, previous managers, family members and “haters” envy them. To “make the haters hate you more” is a very trendy inspiration.
How many times have I heard students telling me they want to be successful in order to show everybody that they became someone successful?
But what does it mean to be successful? Having a happy and prosperous family that fulfils your needs? Being a millionaire who does not have any problems paying his/her bills? Having the job you always dreamed of? The main question you have to ask yourself is what you truly want to do with your life? What do you want to become?
It has often a popular trap we fall into when we compare our own results to the ones of our colleagues. It seems almost normal to be in constant comparison with others. Sometimes I feel that our goal nowadays is only to be more successful than our neighbour. An explanation could be that from an early age we are being given a grade and as such, we are subject to constant comparisons with others. After all, whenever we obtain a grade, we always compare it with our classmates. We might feel disappointed when our colleagues get a better score than us, but we should not let these comparisons affect us. The key is to focus on our own progression, on our own particular areas of improvement. This is applicable in school and later on in our professional lives as well. We can’t let others’ perspectives and comments hurt us. In the end, the only thing that matters is our own happiness and this cannot come about by comparing ourselves to others.
Concerning happiness, a large percentage of young people are attracted by what we could call the “earnings bait”. Money is controlling our lives more than ever, and the ambition of us young people is no longer to be happy in life but to be materially rich. I have heard young people say so many times that their primary goal in life is to be rich and too few times that they want to be live happy and fulfilling lives.
So my question is, do you want to be rich because you actually want to have lots of money and the freedom it brings or do you want to be rich just so you can show others that you made it?
Somebody once said, “A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others”. This is a useful phrase that we should take seriously if our goals are sincere.
We have all heard the popular saying “money does not buy happiness”, but will you be happy if you earn a lot of money wile working in a profession you don’t enjoy? This is why I chose hospitality management as my profession. I am motivated to wake up every day so I can make a difference in people’s lives, not with the cold objective to earn money only. I see success in the smiles I bring to people by providing them with a personal and courteous service. These details are as important as money since our work takes up most of the time we have in our lives. To live life by a tasteless routine that only concerns itself with a growing bank account will always result in a search for happiness that will never end.
What if I asked you to do something only because you want to do it? If you had a choice to make, a working ambition, the will to do something that is unaffected by what others think or do, would you do it?
One thing I know after studying my BBA at Les Roches Marbella for the past three years is that we need to define what we want to be in life, what our goals are and what do we will need to do to achieve them. Most important after this is to not let ourselves be influenced by the judgements and opinions of others. Thanks to my experiences with my colleagues and people from around the world, I now know that it is important to enjoy the life I want to live and to make the choices I want to make for myself, not for others. I have learned to not look at what is in my neighbour’s garden when I can enjoy what I have in my own.
If I were to give a piece of advice it would be to always choose what you will do based on what you want and not on what others will think about your decisions. It is important to distinguish between your own inner criticisms and those of others who may not have your best interests at heart. Your own self-criticism can be a positive force that motivates you to be better, but nore often than not, the opinions of other people do the opposite. Try not to let the point of view others hurt you or influence your ambitions. If you follow your instincts and do what you love, you will become what you want to be. And always, I repeat, ALWAYS DO IT FOR YOURSELF.
