He has achieved success who has worked well, laughed often, and loved much.
– Elbert Hubbard
Love. It’s a word that’s thrown around carelessly and generalized all too often. When people think of “love,” most think about being successful in love. Rarely, though, do people pair love and success together. I have for years. Love is the primary motivator for much of what I do in personal and business affairs, and I think it’s why I’ve experienced the success I have.
“Lead life with love”
No matter what your religious beliefs are, there are spiritual themes that can serve as a foundation for all of our lives.
It’s the idea that love is the answer to society’s ills. Without love, we’re all lost.
If we lead with love in everything we do, all of humanity can operate on a higher vibration. Love is the driving force behind what’s good in the world and what promotes true change.
To my father, that meant honoring and cherishing the people in his life simply because it was in his heart to do so. So easy, yet so profound.
I realized I had adopted that mantra before I realized it. It was on the trips I made with my mother to deliver toys to underprivileged kids in Mexico when I was young. It was in the motherly ways I looked after all of my friends in high school and my young adult years. Love and success in those moments were about wanting the best for others. It was about giving from the heart for no other reason than to help someone else. My mother and father instilled that in me, and it became a part of who I was, and who I am now.
Love is the driving force behind what’s good in the world. It promotes true change in any arena, be it social, political, professional, cultural, etc. And I firmly believe if we lead with love in everything we do, all of humanity will operate on a higher, more positive plane. The results among and between others, as I have seen in my own life, are more respect, generosity, peace and inspiration.
Practical love
What does well-executed love and success look like practically? My work in Kenya is a personal example of achieving success through unconditional love. To see the looks on the girls’ faces when they received their new school dormitory after surviving atrocities of FGM…there’s no reward to match that.
Likewise, practical love looks like women supporting women and mothers supporting mothers, versus tearing each other down. Or maybe it’s men genuinely supporting each other, not volleying for positions of power or buying into the dog-eat-dog mentality. Love and success can be anyone supporting someone else when the easier, expected alternative is treating others like enemies.
Professionally, love and success can be offering unsolicited guidance and mentorship to coworkers. Or, it could mean laying the groundwork so that others can advance and grow—with no ulterior motives. Taking the high road in a conflict is a great example of love and success working hand in hand. (And how much better would our world be if we saw more of that?)
I encourage you to think about how you can show more love to those around you. Consider how you can sincerely express it in a way that lets others know you see and respect them with the unconditional love they deserve. If you do those things, watch the success that blooms in those relationships and interactions. Love and success really do work hand in hand. If you can love somebody and show it, it will be the most powerful gift you can present to anyone.
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