A Different Path to a Successful Life

I cheerfully admit, as artistic photographs the pictures in this post suck. But they’re great snapshots because they illustrate a misunderstood way of being in the world. In the picture above the adventuresome little girl is confidently standing by the cow, while her older brother is watching from a safe place, over by his father. The boy was shy and an introvert…which, contrary to popular belief, are not the same thing. (Extroverts can be shy, and introverts can be comfortable in social situations.) Anyway, the folks did their best to get the boy to be more sociable, but to no avail. One of his mother’s favorite stories was her attempt at psychology. She would send the two of them down to the corner grocery to buy an item or two. She hoped that he would take enough pride in being the big brother that it would give him the courage to handle the shopping. Yeah, sure. He would safely escort his sister to and from the store, but when they got there, he would wait outside and send her in to do the buying.

The folks also made him go to some parties and dances when he got older, but it never caught on with him. He was more interested in projects than in socializing. But he had no problem dealing with people when he wanted to get something done. When he and a friend…across the street and a few houses down… connected their bedrooms by a homemade telegraph, they had no trouble getting permission to string the wire through their neighbors’ trees. And he had no trouble doing his paper route and getting other jobs to earn money.

Also, when he and his friend built a motorized raft in a mountain lake (his folks had a cabin there, which he had helped build),

they had no problem finding friends to share it with:

(The finished craft had a sun deck as well as a diving board.)

And that’s pretty much how his life went…he worked hard and success came to him. He had a double major in physics and math in college and applied to one graduate school…Stanford University. He was accepted, but when asked what he would have done if he had been rejected, he shrugged and said, “I would have done something else.”

Once he received his Ph.D. he never had to look for another job. People came to him. His first position was in France for 13 months, which he and his wife used as a home base while they traveled around Europe on weekends and holidays. Then they took two months to come back to the states …via the Mideast, East Africa, India, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand.

But, you might ask, if you don’t go to parties, how do you find a mate? That part turned out to be easy. When he was psychologically ready, a gal recognized him for the gem that he was and snatched him up.

Did his shyness hold him back? In the fullness of time that went away by itself. He eventually wound up as a technical adviser/leader. He refused to go into management, but he was not allowed to do things himself…his expertise was too valuable…so his job was to walk around, see where the problems were and help people solve them. Working with people all day was no problem because the job was a great match for his abilities. He was well-liked and highly respected.

We hear a lot of advice now-a-days about the importance of networking and self-promotion. No doubt, in general, that advice is sound. But I personally am pleased to know that there are other paths to a successful life. Hard work and competence is a winning combination.

What about you? What path have you taken? Do feel it has been successful? Please share your thoughts in the comments section.