The janitor, the professor, and the meaning of success
About this episode
The episode explores the true meaning of success through a conversation with Perry Atwal, emphasizing the importance of energy and health in achieving a fulfilling life.
Most of us spend a lot of time thinking about what we want. A better job. More money. A nicer house. More freedom. Less stress. Very few of us spend much time thinking about what a successful life actually looks like. That question came up during a conversation with Perry Atwal , a lecturer at the University of British Columbia and author of the upcoming book Wisdom for Life . After teaching more than 20,000 students around the world, Atwal has spent years looking for patterns in the people who thrive and the people who struggle. One of the most interesting things he said was that most of us are aiming too low. He asked a simple question: when you have no reason to feel anything, where is your energy level? On a scale from one to ten, are you ready to go back to bed, or are you bouncing off the walls? Most people, he said, live around a five or six. His argument is that we should be trying to live closer to a nine or ten. That idea stuck with me. A lot of us assume that energy comes from success. Atwal sees it the other way around. Energy creates success. The people who excel are often the people who bring more than what is asked of them. If an assignment calls for three things…
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