Journal of Sacred Work

For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one’s dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the byproduct of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself.  – Victor Frankl

   What is the difference between pursuing success and having it ensue? Around 1984, the Board Chair at giant Riverside Methodist Hospital, where I was CEO, gave me a set of audio tapes on goal-setting. I devoured them, excited by the energy I felt from the notion that if I focused hard enough on a single, specific goal, the way the tape said, then I would reach my target. Did success result?…

   Part of the answer is yes. Riverside’s center of excellence in heart care was launched through this process and it became a huge success. Where attention goes energy flows. Goal setting certainly focuses energy.
   Yet, we achieved success not because we pursued it but because we poured our energy into the whole idea of what it meant to be excellence. We decided that patients at our hospital deserved a better and more sophisticated level of care than we had been offering up to that point. To achieve that level, we had to do more than recruit some great heart doctors. We needed to establish an environment that would foster high level excellence. This meant that we needed to enrich our culture of caring as well as our emphasis on curing.

   Every major success story that involves true excellence involves the same ingredients. Martin Luther King, Jr. didn’t succeed because he pursued integrating the south. His movement succeeded because he dedicated himself, with passion, to a cause greater than himself. He didn’t make the movement about his own success, he made it about Civil Rights.
   Herb Kelleher did not make Southwest Airlines successful simply by pursuing a goal of the lowest fares. Instead, he focused on developing a culture that would 1) attract the best people and 2) develop the best systems. Success ensued.
   What about individual caregivers? Deadre Hall, a world class loving caregiver at Baptist Hospital didn’t get that way only by pursuing more training. Instead, she focused on becoming a better person! Her morning rituals of music and prayer, her practices of supporting her fellow caregivers, and her fundamental passion for patients is what has made her successful.
   Guess what? Deadre is happy as well. Her happiness, according to her, ensues from her deep faith, her love of her son and mother, and her abiding commitment to serve others in need.
   Pursuing success often generates anger, hostility and frustration as we attempt to control certain outcomes. A focus on love, which leads us to enriching our lives through what we do for others, is the clear pathway to abiding joy.