I came upon this truth as I was preparing a talk for Sacrament Meeting and I wanted to share it with you.
"It is the misapprehension of most people that if you are good, really good, at what you do, you will eventually be both widely known and well compensated.
"It is the understanding of almost everyone that success, to be complete, must include a generous portion of both fame and fortune as essential ingredients. The world seems to work on that premise. The premise is false. It is not true. The Lord [teaches] otherwise.
"....You need not be either rich or hold high position to be completely successful and truly happy. In fact, if these things come to you, and they may, true success must be achieved in spite of them, not because of them.
"It is remarkably difficult to teach this truth. If one who is not well know, and not well compensated, claims that he has learned for himself that neither fame nor fortune are essential to success, we tend to reject his statement as self-serving. What else could he say and not count himself a failure?
"If someone who has possession of fame or fortune asserts that neither matters to success or happiness, we suspect that his expression can also be self-serving, even patronizing.
"Therefore, we will not accept as reliable authorities either those who have fame and fortune or those who have not. We question that either can be an objective witness.
"That leaves only one course open to us: trial and error---to learn for oneself, by experience, about prominence and wealth or their opposites.
"We thereafter struggle through life, perhaps missing both fame and fortune, to finally learn one day that one can, indeed, succeed without possessing either. Or we may, one day, have both and learn and learn that neither has made us happy; neither is basic to the recipe for true success and for complete happiness. That is a very slow way to learn.
"We come into mortal life to receive a body and to be tested, to learn to choose.
".....the choice of life is not between fame and obscurity, nor is the choice between wealth and poverty. The choice is between good and evil, and that is a very different matter indeed. (from Boyd K. Packer, Memorable Stories with a Message, Deseret Book, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2000, pp. 128-130)
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4 comments:
You write very inspiring blog posts. It would be nice to hear from you more often. Love you.
So true Doug....thanks for the reminder. Love your posts...love you.
thank you Doug, your post is true in every way. it is only those who embrace worldliness that miss the true meaning of life for they know not where to find it, it is up those that know, as you blog states here, to share our knowledge of God's happiness -- to be chosen of God, to wear His garment and be His servant, no matter our station in the world, that is true eternal happiness.
I wish everyone could read this. I felt the truth of this in my heart as I read it.
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