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Hello, my friends. Welcome back to the Ryan Leak podcast, where we love to keep things short and sweet for you each and every week. And I believe that today's episode is going to add tremendous value to your life. Today we are going to be talking about moving from success to significance. Moving from success to significance. I have learned this mantra from a mentor and friend by the name of John C. Maxwell who is a leadership guru. If you do not know who he is and has added tremendous value to my life, and he uses this phrase often, that you and I should be the kinds of people that move from success to significance to making our lives our aims, our goals, our dreams around having success and moving the goalpost over to the side of significance. Which is interesting for me because I am indeed a person who thinks about being successful quite a bit and not just being successful in terms of monetary value or social media influence. I genuinely have a drive to be good at just about anything I put my mind to. I'm a husband and I want to be good at husbanding, if that's a thing. Hello, Amanda, by the way, Amanda listens every single week and bae, I just wanted to say I love you. I want to be a good father. Like, I want to be good at it. Like, if I'm going to do it, like, I want to give my best to it. Play basketball. Growing up, I didn't just want to play for fun. Like, I wanted to be successful at playing basketball. I have recently started golfing and you can ask my wife and friends. It has become a thing. My friends told me when I first started that eventually you'll get the bug. And let's just say I don't know what you call something when it's bigger than a bug, but we are there, my friends, no question about it. And in fact, one of my friends said, it's going to take you about four years to get good. And I said, okay. And then I kept sending them videos and, and more videos and more videos and more videos. And I'm buying all these putting things at my house and memberships at driving ranges and all this stuff. And then he's like, maybe three years for you. And then I sent him more videos. He goes, it might take you two and a half. Like, I just have an engine that's just like, if I see a goal, like, I'm going for it. I want to be successful at whatever I. I put my hands to, whether that is speaking, writing, podcasting, creating content, running a team. Like, I am a success oriented person when it comes to Just how I think. And so moving from that mindset to this new mindset of just going. Actually, it's, it's actually more about significance. It's actually drastically changed how I live and really how I. How I think. Because if we are comparing and contrasting success and significance, success says, look at what I built. Look at me. But significance says, look who I've helped build. Here's who you should be paying attention to. Success says, look at what I have achieved. Significance says, look who is stronger. Look who is wiser, healthier, more confident. Because I was in their life, I was trying to add value to this person's life. Not in a way of taking credit, but in terms of being the kind of person that is more outwardly focused than inwardly focused. And what's interesting about this journey is that I've had to realize that in the process of gaining some success, you can become pretty self centered. Me centered. Even when it's noble. Like, I want to be a great husband. Great. All right. I want to be a great dad. Great. I want to be great in business. Cool. I want to write great books. I get it right. I want to give great talks. But at some point, I think we all, in the midst of our pursuits, we have to ask ourselves a better question. A better question than am I good enough? A better question than, am I successful? The better question is, who is getting better? Because I am getting better. Like, who's on the journey with you? Because if all of our growth ends with us, then we end up having success without significance. And let me just tell you this. I've had the wonderful privilege of meeting a lot of quote unquote successful people who have an incredible amount of money, an incredible amount of titles, trophies, followers. I know a lot of people who have built impressive lives on paper. But significance, different ball game. You can be a multimillionaire and have success for you, but have very little impact on somebody else's life. You can be wildly accomplished and still be living way too small if the only person benefiting from your gifts is you. That, my friends, is what has been stretching me over the last couple of years. Because for a success oriented person, if I'm honest, like really, really honest, helping somebody else succeed can actually feel a little threatening. Like, I'm just gonna keep it 100 with you today. Like, if I help you do really well what I already do, then there is a part of me that might wonder if the people who pay me to do what I do might start paying you instead of me. If I coach you Mentor you, open doors for you, encourage you, share what I know, share my secret sauces, and all of a sudden you begin flourishing. There is a part of me that might say, oh, hold on just a second. I mean, I want you to succeed, but do I want you to succeed more than me? Or dare I say, at the expense of me? And this is where John Maxwell has made such a tremendous difference in my life. It's interesting. I've seen John four or five times in person over the last six months and every time he sees me, he says the exact same thing. He says, ryan, you're going to go so much further than I could have ever gone and I cannot wait to help you do it. And I'll just be kind of blinking at him like, I mean, I just don't even see how that's possible. I mean, it's a compliment, but at the same time it's just like, do you just say this to everybody? And he genuinely wants other people to be more successful than him. This is somebody that has sold almost 40 million copies of his books around the world in multiple languages, who is looking 39 year olds in the eyes and speaking life and hope in dreams into them and say, hey, you think I've done something? Wait till you see what God does in your life. And as he is speaking into my life, I'm thinking to myself, how do I get there sooner? How do I get to a place where I'm not just saying I want everybody to win, but how do I get to a place where I genuinely, wholeheartedly, truly believe that and act on that, even if it means that somebody else becomes more successful than me in some category, even if they get opportunities that I wanted, even if they build something bigger or get more attention, even if they pass me like, I want to be at a place where I don't just outwardly celebrate comrades? No, where the inward matches the outward. Where I truly believe in the messaging of moving from success to significance and in the process of pouring into more and more people and mentoring more and more people and coaching more and more people and truly releasing this idea of, well, I just have to be successful. Actually, now I'm going, how can I make other people successful? Like, I thought it was fun to experience a high level of success for myself. And it's fun. I enjoy it. I enjoy the work that I get to do each and every day. And I pinch myself often thinking about the fact that I get to make an impact in people's lives and I'm compensated to do so. It's unbelievable. But now, helping others do that, honestly, it's even more fun watching somebody else make a difference in somebody else's life who may never know my name, who I'll never meet. Like that is moving from success to significance. And in this process, you want to know what I. What I realized? At first I thought we were competing, but what I've learned is that we are on the same team. And that changes everything. Because when you move from success to significance, you stop asking, how do I stay ahead? You start asking, how do I help more people? When you stop seeing gifted people as threats, you stop hoarding insight, you start sharing it. You stop trying to be the only one shining, and you start turning on lights in other people. And there is something deeply fulfilling about that. Success feels good, but I would argue significance feels better. Sure, success can fill your calendar, but significance, my friend, that will fill your soul. Success sure can impress people. No question about it. The significance, well, that can impact people. And maybe that's why I just know a lot of successful people who are miserable. Sure, they built something, they've achieved something, they've accumulated something, but deep down, there's an odd emptiness because success alone is a terrible savior. It's like it's never enough. There's always another deal, you know, another award, another level, another milestone, another accolade, another house, another audience, another. Another metric. Success has a way of continuing to move the goalpost. But significance, it's going to give you something success never could. Fulfillment, meaning true joy. Because when you help somebody else grow, when you help somebody else believe in themselves, when you help somebody else take a step and use their gift and find their voice and launch their idea or heal or lead and become something they could have never become on their own. There is a kind of joy that comes with that that money could never buy. So wherever you are in the world today, I'm going to encourage you to be the kind of person that does not just look for success. Be the kind of person that looks for significance. Maybe that's making a difference in a child's life. Maybe that's helping out a co worker, colleague. Or maybe it's trying to make a difference in your leader's life because nobody ever thinks about them. Wherever you are, I encourage you to be the kind of person that moves from success to significance. I know a lot of unhappy, incredibly successful people. I don't know one unhappy person who is trying to make a difference in the lives of other people that is truly obsessed with significance. Those people are fulfilled in a way that stuff and status could never give them. So that's the invitation today to move from building a platform to building people. To move from perhaps trying to prove yourself to pouring into others. To move from keeping score to creating impact. To move from success to significance. And I'm not 100% there yet. I'm still a work in progress. But my hope and prayer is that each and every day that God would put people in my life that I can add value to and that I can help them be successful. And as he has given me opportunities that I absolutely do not deserve. And I hope that I open some doors for some other people that maybe I would maybe judge historically. But I pray that in the future I'd be the kind of person that says, you know what? I want to make my life about significance. Moving from success to significance My friends, thank you so much for listening to the Ryan Link podcast. If today's episode inspired your added value in any way, I would encourage you to share it with a friend. And if you haven't already, please don't forget to rate, review and subscribe. Your support helps us reach even more people with these short and sweet nuggets of inspiration. Thanks for being a part of the journey and we will catch you next time.