A motorcyclist was speeding down the road on a winter day. Cold from the wind blowing through buttonholes, he stopped, took off his jacket, turned it inside out, put it on backwards, and started up the road again. Fortunately, he solved the cold and wind problem. Unfortunately, he hit a large stone and skidded into a tree, falling unconscious. Immediately, a large crowd gathered around him. When the policeman arrived, he asked, “What happened? What happened?” A helpful person remarked, “When we got here, he was awake and seemed alright, but he attempted to turn his head around, and then died.”

I want to speak on an important topic: Successful Success. There is no other topic, when trying to turn your head around, that actually ends up hurting you! You may have heard of the father who was prodding his son to do well at his studies. The son asked his dad, “Why should I study?” The father replied, “So you can go to college.” “Why should I go to college?” “Oh, so you can get a job.” “Why should I get a job?” “So you can make some money, son.” “Why do you want me to make money?” “So you can eventually retire, like me.” “Well, I could retire right now, Dad. The more I study, the more I know, the more I know, the more I forget, and eventually, the more I forget, the less I know, so why study at all when I can just retire right here and now?”

Doesn’t the kid have a point? I’m going to take this topic of successful success and frame it in the form of a question. If you gained the whole world and lost your soul, would you have been successful? Success, by itself, is a neutral word, empty of any world view. Philosophers, politicians, and marketers alike put meaning into that word for us. I once stepped into an elevator of a restaurant where a sign read, “Are you hungry for success? Eat at our restaurant.” Until you put meaning into it, it’s not important to you. When it has meaning, then it matters.

If you gained the whole world but lost your soul, have you been successful? There are two parts to that question. First, if you ask anyone on the street for the definition of success, they would use what is called the PMF Index: Power, Money, and Fame Index. Sociologists say power, money, and fame expose a strain to consistency. That is, the powerful are also rich and famous. The rich are also powerful and famous. The famous are also rich and powerful. Psychologists call it the Success Spiral Syndrome. A person attains one level of success and that prompts them to achieve the next level. This is easily seen in today’s movie stars, musicians, and politicians.

It has been said that there is about three hundred trillion dollars of economic wealth in the world. Can you imagine if one person gained the total sum of all this wealth? Let’s say one person did. This person climbed the ladder of success and, as the saying goes, eventually found it leaning against the wrong wall. They chased the pot of gold but lost the rainbow. Are they really a successful success?

I want to speak about five immediate losses that you experience when you try to gain the whole world and lose your soul. The first loss is called Sociological Loss of Community. In other words, when you’re trying to pursue success at all costs, your relationships suffer. What matters most becomes very unimportant. You try to attain a nice nest egg, beautiful home, or wonderful car but in pursuing these things your wife leaves you, your sons become drug addicts, and even worse, you don’t care.

In societies like ours, rank and role play a lot of importance. The British are known for endowing success on people who are already successful. Every year Buckingham Palace bestows a G (gong) and a K (knighthood) on whom they deem worthy. At the top, is the order of St. Michael and St. George, each having an appropriate title with acronyms. For instance, the Commander is called the CMG. The Knight Commander is called the KCMG. The Knight Grand Cross is called the GCMG. It’s such a big deal, that in contrast, British comedians make light of their own tradition by creating a parody of these definitions. They label CMG: call me God. KCMG: kindly call me God. GCMG: God calls me God.

A second immediate loss may be called the Existential Loss of Stability. Everyone needs something to hold them up, especially in their pursuit of success. Whether you take power, fame, pleasure, love, education, alcohol, government, religion, philosophy, drugs, sex, addictions, possessions, hobbies, buying stuff, selling stuff, new stuff, old stuff, corruption, bribing, technology, relationships, the stock market, gold, oil, work, business, clothes, appearance, reputation, image, influence, contacts, crime, violence, sports, marriage, children, parents, body, physique, intellect, mind—all those things will not give you stability. It will simply not hold you up.

A third immediate loss is the Philosophical Loss of Purpose. One day, I opened one of the world’s most well known newspapers and I saw a brilliant classmate of mine in the business pages. She was doing extremely well in terms of the PMF Index. She was leaving one morning, conflicted between attending her only daughter’s piano recital or getting on a private jet to France for a work assignment. As she was boarding the plane, she was looking at her jewelry, $500 wine bottles, and Armani suit, thinking only about her daughter’s piano recital. That was four years ago. She’s been searching for the meaning of her life ever since.

A fourth immediate loss is the Ethical Loss of Value (also known as Moral Loss of Principle). As you pursue success, it can become an obsession and what is most important to you becomes less of a priority. You start compromising your values. It’s happened all over the world. The history of business and politics is littered with people who compromise their values, because they want power, money, and fame. Did you know that the West African government pays policemen to catch corrupt businessmen, and the corrupt businessmen pay the police not to catch them? At the turn of the last century, about 100 years ago, an original thinker by the name of William James, who integrated physiology with philosophy and psychology, wrote to his friend, H.G. Wells (who was considered by some to be the father of modern science fiction), saying, “I condemn moral flabbiness, born of exclusive worship of the bitch goddess: success.”

Some time ago, in Asia, a young 15 year old and her chauffer were driving in her parent’s new Mercedes Benz. They were in a huge, hard collision. The car was totaled and the young girl was paralyzed from the waist down. The saddest part of the story was that neither parent wanted to take on the responsibility of caring for their paralyzed daughter. They were pursuing mind-blowing success, but they lost value.

Finally, there is a spiritual loss of priority as to what is really important in your life. Let me ask you: is the external more important than the internal? Is the physical more important than the spiritual? Is the earthly more important than the eternal? Is the circumstantial more important than the absolute? If you answered yes to any of those questions, you’ve lost priority. As you probably know, Beijing is the fastest growing economy in the world. They tell as story of a billionaire businessman who bought himself a fabulous $900,000 Bentley. As he was racing down a busy road, a bus hit him. It took off the side of his car and he yelled and screamed, “My car! My car!” As the man wept over his new car, the bus driver approached him, “Hey, settle down! Your arm has been torn away—you don’t have an arm!” The man looked down and shouted, “My Rolex! My Rolex! Where is my Rolex?”

These are five immediate losses you experience when gaining the world but losing your soul. You gain the whole world but you’ll have the immediate loss of your soul and eternal loss of your soul. The patriarch of the Rockefeller family was asked when he would “feel” rich. He replied, “When I have one more dollar.” When he died, he had everything—but he couldn’t take it with him. What does it profit a person to gain the whole world and lose his soul? You can recover from immediate losses but eternal ones are permanent.

This question is a good teaching tool. It demands a yes or no answer. It also creates reflection. It’s supposed to function in a way to create contemplation, to help you ponder and pause. If your definition of success is power, money, and fame, then your answer is yes. If success has peace on the inside—and that’s what you’re looking for—then your answer is no. You’re looking for joy in the middle of any circumstance and hope for the future. Forgiveness of everything that you’ve done wrong. That’s successful success. Life that can never be destroyed. Love that can never be shattered. Winston Churchill said, “Men stumble on truth and in a moment they dust themselves off and keep going.”

The force of this question needs consideration. Take, for example, the couple who was asked to evacuate their home in less than one hour. The wife brought out some clothes. Her husband very gently asked, “Is that what you want to take along with you? Because all your clothes are replaceable.” She ran in back in and brought out their family album and pictures. Now that is far more precious.

So, now you have to decide. What is your personal, honest response? Before you answer, let me ask you to focus on one last thing. The focus is not towards you. The focus is towards the one who asked the question. Do you know who asked that question? That question was asked by the Lord Jesus Christ.

You see there are many kinds of question askers. There are the ordinary question askers, basically looking for information and searching for answers. There are the wise among us—philosophers, religious leaders, gurus, heads of ethical systems, prophets, and teachers—who ask questions because they are trying to help you to examine yourself and point you toward an answer. Then, there are those who ask questions because they’re offering themselves as the answer to the question. So when the Lord Jesus asked the question, he was actually saying, “I would like to offer myself as the answer to that question.” Ultimately, he’s saying,” If you would like to have profit and goodness in your life, while preserving your soul, then I want you to welcome me, embrace me and follow me. I will be the one who is the secret to successful success in your life.”

In fact in this context, he was talking about how he would pay the price for whatever mess that we find ourselves in. Why we can’t find successful success without Him? Because this kind of success has peace on the inside, hope for the future—for this life and your eternal life, and joy in the middle of any circumstance that you may face. That’s successful success. Can you imagine that? Love that can never be shattered. Life that can never be destroyed. Just imagine if you had that. Winston Churchill, the great leader said, “Men stumble on truth, and in a moment, they dust themselves off and keep going.”

The Lord says he will give you advantages only God can give. When my children were younger, we used to play chess. My son would get a couple of my pawns but I would get his queen. Then he would take a couple more of my pawns but I would take his castle. He would gain more of my pawns but I gained his knight. At some degree of relish my son would say, “I’ve got six of your men and you have only three of mine.” You see, he only saw his material advantage, but I had the positional advantage.

If you have eternal life, then you have positional advantage and your earthly life begins to make sense; but if you don’t have eternal life, then you only have material advantage and you will lose whatever you’ve gained in earthly life. The Lord Jesus gives you positional advantage by receiving him. In that way, you will not lose your soul and your earthly life can be profitable and good.

Focus on the one who asked the question. Will you write to me about this intriguing subject? There’s a lot more to be said and I’d like to hear from you, so that we can begin a meaningful, spiritual conversation for the next several months. We’re waiting for your registration on our website www.RameshRichard.com! You can join thousands from around the world who have already registered. You may even qualify for special gifts that we have online, but more than that, you’ll find answers to life and how you can be a successful success!