Lazy Man and Jealousy |
35 Comments |
Like many people, I’m a member of LinkedIn. I think it’s a fabulous tool for keeping in touch with people and very well could help advance my career. Last week I logged into my account to accept a connection from a friend and I had a surprise waiting. My college freshman roommate’s title was listed as a vice president at a huge financial institution. I realize financial companies have a lot of vice presidents, but it is still an amazing job title - and certainly a salary to match. I was immediately jealous at his success. I flashed back towards college and remember the guy that could and would out-party everyone in the dorm.
I know I’m not the first person to feel this way. In fact most people probably experience at their high school reunions. I immediately left my desk at work and went for a short walk. I had to process what change of events could have occurred to make him so successful.
I didn’t dwell on that those thoughts too long, but quickly turned to my own situation. I’m not a big-wig at a company that everyone has heard of. In fact, the company I work for is so small few people in the local area have heard of it. I do make a salary that exceeds the average American’s by a wide margin. I have this blog, with great readers and commenters, that is far more successful than I ever imagined.
After thoughts about career status success, it occurred to me that there are many more areas to judge success. LinkedIn doesn’t tell me if Mr. VP spends twelve hours a day at work. It doesn’t tell me if he has a loving wife to come home to. It doesn’t say whether he has great friends or whether he’s happy with his life. Perhaps it’s time for another Self Appreciation Day - and perhaps I’m just as successful as Mr. Big-Wig VP after all.
This post deals with: ... and focuses on:Deep Thoughts
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October 2nd, 2007 at 7:26 am
[...] out there has come clean about being envious about a former college roommate’s current success. Lazy Man has confessed about some deep thoughts and honest feelings he’s had about an old [...]
September 25th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
You could take it as a compliment. Like minds attract attract like-minds.
September 25th, 2007 at 5:02 am
[...] week, the post “Lazy Man and Jealousy” made me think about the Seven Deadly Sins. I am not a Christian. My first introduction to [...]
September 24th, 2007 at 8:42 am
The google ads on this post are really funny: “Make him fall in love” and “Inside a guy’s mind”. Anything you want to tell us lazyman?
September 23rd, 2007 at 6:23 pm
Being jealous is indeed normal - but personally, I couldn’t find myself jealous of someone else’s success. It would simply motivate me to see if I could duplicate their winning ways in my own life. And it would have to be so much more than a good job or nice home -it would be something along the lines of “I make a million bucks a year blogging” or something to that effect.