Do you remember that old Rolaids commercial?

“How do you spell ‘relief’?”

“R-O-L-A-I-D-S”

What a great campaign. “When you want relief from heart burn and acid indigestion – Rolaids.” I still remember it after all these years.

Recently I was out for a coffee with a friend of mine I hadn’t seen in quite some time. We both started businesses at the same time. We had both grown them over the years. We had both tasted a certain degree of success in our careers. We are in our 50s now.

As we sipped our espresso-based drinks in a funky downtown outdoor café we reminisced about the years we had spent in business, what we had accomplished, the good times we had along the way, and the struggles we had to work through.

We drilled a little deeper as well, into those “latter years” issues that revolve around significance more than success. Issues that have more to do with contribution than competition, more about legacy than living in luxury. We talked about that deep down desire to contribute to the greater good. To ensure that somehow we mattered. To make a difference because of how we lived and how we led.

That’s when I thought about the Rolaids commercial, except I heard my inner voice asking, “How do you spell ‘success’?”

We tend to spell success quantitatively as opposed to qualitatively. We tend to define success in monetary terms: revenues, profit, income, investments, rates of return and the “stuff” we can buy with money. It is easy to chase this definition of success in our younger years – build, grow, acquire, accumulate, accomplish…

”How much is enough?”

“A little more…”

We end up chasing the horizon; the closer we think we get, we remain equally as far away as when we started.

However, in the latter years of our careers, perhaps after we have tasted a degree of success and what that has to offer, we may find ourselves asking deeper questions about what true success really looks like. We shift from success to significance. And, our definition of success needs to shift.

What if we defined success more quantitatively? Instead of measuring success by how much we ‘conquer’, we measure it by how much we contribute. Instead of measuring it by how rich we have become, we measure it by how we have enriched others. Instead of looking at the possessions we have acquired we look at the character we have demonstrated.

Is our bank account full, and our hearts bankrupt – devoid of contentment, peace, joy, hope, kindness, meaningful friendships, happiness, and dare I say ‘love’? Have we been so focused on success as a road to true happiness that we have missed the turn on life’s highway indicating that happiness is the result of how we contribute to others, not how we accumulate for ourselves?

Our true happiness best grows when transplanted in the soil of other people’s lives.

It is time to assess the ‘quality’ of our lives, not just the ‘quantity’ of our lives. The critical question that is repeatedly asked at business functions is, “Are you busy?” Or, when we are asked how things are going we reply, “Oh, I’m busy.” – as if busyness is the goal, or somehow the road to success.

When asked that question now I have changed my reply. Instead of a quick and shallow, “Oh yeah, I’m busy.” I try to say, “Well, busyness isn’t my goal – but I hope I am contributing somehow.”

So, how do you spell ‘success’? May your definition be more about what you are giving, than what you are getting. May it be more about your contribution to others, and less about your acquisitions.

I would encourage you to pause in the midst of the busyness of life and define what success really looks like for you. I hope it is more others-serving than self-serving.

Life is short and it may soon be past, but what we have done for others will last.