I had lunch the other day with a younger surveyor that has had his own show for a couple of years now. He mentioned hoping to be "as successful" as me someday. That really seemed like an odd thing to say. I really couldn't tell you if I felt successful or not, simply because I have never defined success in my own mind.
And I don't think I'm alone. I know a number of surveyors that probably have not ever had goals that extended past things like: pay off the equipment or put on another crew next year or replace a truck or build a new house...All things that could simply fall under the category of "staying in business".
I had to apologize to my young colleague that I had never really considered myself "successful". My work history goes something like: I worked for an engineer until I was licensed. I traveled all over with a construction company. I was a government employee. I was a partner in a consulting firm. I've had three corporate entities in the last twenty-five years. Every one of these endeavors (save the business I now operate) ended with some sort of dissatisfaction on my part. I really don't see that as a successful career. I had to ask my friend what made him think I've made it.
His reply was somewhat youthful and naïve, but it was honest. He told me he considered me successful because I don't worry about anything and everything goes smoothly at my shop. I had to explain to him that I really did still worry about stuff AND things don't always run smooth. But I have learned to take things on the chin and handle the "stress" of day-to-day management without freaking out.
The longer we talked about this subject, it became evident we differed in a distinct way. I have "failed" several times in business while he has never 'hit the skids', so to speak. He has a fear of failure. While not really wanting to experience a bad business again, I have no fear of it. It won't kill me.
I've never had a "big picture" goal or plan. I've never desired a large corporate building with "Cash & Associates" on the door. So I believe my successes have come with the accomplishments of small goals along the way. My first goal was to stay with a company a good long time and retire. That didn't happen. I guess everything else that has happened since then has been Plan B, C or D...
Silly as it might seem, success in surveying might be described as merely surviving the business.
I gotta go, it's time to sign everybody's paycheck. I might even get a scooter ride in before it rains. B-)
I've had fun, paid the bills, supported some expensive hobbies, met lots of nice people, etc. All-in-all, a satisfying career.
Success could be defined as making a decent living while doing good work in a field that you enjoy.
Successful?
I thoroughly enjoyed my working years... well, 99% of the time.
Paid my debts, all of them.
Retired where and when I wanted to.
Not plagued by the errors I made through the years.
Bonus: some small measure or respect/recognition by my peers
Not much else I can think of that really matters, so I guess I was "successful"
One of my favorites:
THE MASTER
The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence in whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him, he is always doing both. . . . . Anonymous
Making more money than your wife can spend.
A successful career in my mind is pretty simple. Does it provide enough cash and leave enough time to enjoy with the people I choose?
"To crush your enemies -- See them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women!"
Mentoring the next generation.
"Silly as it might seem, success in surveying might be described as merely surviving the business."
In my area this is definately the case. I am a native here, and most of my childhood friends left decades ago in order to make a living. I worked my tail off several times over and have been able not only to stay in this beautiful place, but raise a family, buy a house, enjoy my work, and mentor several tremendous young surveyors. My Dad taught me to do the best job I could do, and I, and my body of work, are respected by my peers. Not much means more to me that that - thanks Dad.
I was once offered a job paying over three times the money I was making at the time. It sounded good, but I knew I would not be happy there, so I said no. I have never regretted it. Money is not what life is about. It's now getting to the point where I am thinking about stepping back a little and enjoying more hiking, fishing and travel with a beautiful woman. To me, the fact that I can do this is testament to my success, but to be honest, I have never really thought about it until now.
Things closest to that for me are the few times I've had a very personalised card or note accompanying their payment. Touching times.
They remind me we have a part in society that are unique and can reach into the lives of others, helping them in their time of crisis.
As also mentioned here, for me peer respect is a gauge of professional satisfaction, success.
Never ending up in court. 😉
Since I have been employed in the public sector for 99.9999% of my working life and only about 16 of my 36-plus years of employment has involved full-time surveying, "success" to me takes a different angle (no pun intended).
Because my employer (state DOT) is a public agency, our work is presumed correct by its very nature- whether it's construction layout, survey control or mapping right-of-way boundaries. The unfortunate reality is that our agency is ran largely by engineers who certainly value the importance of the first two items but when it comes to R/W mapping and the often exhaustive, time-consuming boundary research and analysis that is involved to get it done RIGHT (especially when state roads have been inherited from other municipalities where monumentation and documentation are notably lacking), the engineering bean counters practically go into panic mode. Yet they would have zero problems designing a multi-million dollar habitat to protect the Purple-Speckled Four-Winged Giant Mosquito...
So for me, "success" is ensuring that the public interest is protected along with the adjoiners' rights (who are every bit as much of the public interest), by striving to recover every possible bit of evidence and thorough, objective analysis of such evidence for R/W boundary determination. And making those in positions of authority above us understand the extreme importance of getting those boundaries in our R/W maps CORRECT and not encouraging compromising- whether directly or indirectly- because the adjoiners and private surveyors rely on us.
We owe the public no less.
Just my opinion.
>
> Silly as it might seem, success in surveying might be described as merely surviving the business.
>
B-)
Paden,
Silly or not, survival is critical, not merely in business but in life in general.
It's a hard world out there; business, personal, social, political, religious, etc, etc. - Just being able to survive and to learn from the hard knocks, many times is success, in and of itself.
But, "success in surveying" is the topic-
To me, as a business owner and operator, my success is making sure that I can make payroll, pay my bills and to coordinate a smooth operation (while not freaking out) 😉
It's hard, very hard at times - But I would not have it any other way.
I've learned how to operate a business and I was mentored by a great man that came before me, my father, who started the company many years ago and is now retired. I now have the opportunity to be successful, guided by the examples that my father provided. My success will be measured by how and by what others think of me.
Success is what I think of when I think of my Dad and the examples that he set before me and success maybe for you Peden, is by what that young buck thinks of you.
Therefor, it seems to me that you have been successful.
I told my kids long ago that I don't really care what career path they take as long as it honors God, finances whatever lifestyle they want, and hopefully they look forward to waking up each day to go do it. Not many people get to have that third part. I'm blessed. It's very very very few days that I wake up dreading my day. I'm in an honorable profession. We provide an important function to a free society. Financially I'm certain that there are better examples, but in the past few years I've found that my income is sufficient to finance my lifestyle. And I like my lifestyle. I'd say that covers the big ones. Peter's quote above is so true. I pity the majority of the working world who has not experienced that.
> I told my kids long ago that I don't really care what career path they take as long as it honors God, finances whatever lifestyle they want, and hopefully they look forward to waking up each day to go do it. Not many people get to have that third part. I'm blessed. It's very very very few days that I wake up dreading my day. I'm in an honorable profession. We provide an important function to a free society. Financially I'm certain that there are better examples, but in the past few years I've found that my income is sufficient to finance my lifestyle. And I like my lifestyle. I'd say that covers the big ones. Peter's quote above is so true. I pity the majority of the working world who has not experienced that.
:good: :good: :good:
there is a big difference between "work to live" and "live to work"
