Does Culture Shape Our Thoughts On Success? with Kris Sykes & Brian Goldsack

Success Fundamentals

In this episode, Kris Sykes and Brian Goldsack talk about their own definitions of success and how their own upbringing and specific cultural contexts come into play with it. With both working in the finance world, Brian and Kris agree that finances are at the heart of their specific definitions of success.

However, it is when discussing personal experiences and backgrounds where one can see how the idea of success may have evolved throughout the years. In this episode, Kris and Brian ruminate about pecking orders, financial autonomy, the internet as the great equalizer, and community building as a tool for financial success.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Defining the American Dream throughout the years
• Financial freedom and functioning autonomously as the new idea of success
• The role of social media in creating financial freedom
• Creating a community now is key to making money
• Being able to produce is universal
• Money is not everything, but it affects everything else
• Being on top of your industry is no longer everything
• Expressions of wealth differ among cultures and upbringing
• Provincial vs Cosmopolitan outlooks
• How to best set up the future generation for success

QUOTES

Kris: "If I'm being honest, I know most people say it's not about the money, but if we're having a very real conversation, I think if nobody has to worry about their bills from a financial perspective, I think everyone would deem themselves successful if bills we're not even an issue."

Brian: “They said after World War II, when the soldiers started coming back, very few people had a college degree because most people were drafted into the military. So you had to repopulate the workforce once everybody came back. But the majority of people working in the corporate world were veterans. And as veterans, all they knew was the military, and therefore, the American culture of business started to become very militaristic. Like there was a very defined hierarchy of you know, Private all the way to CEO. I think that started to shape how we also viewed success as well. Like if you were the kingpin, if you were the top top top of a particular corporation. That was successful. I think that probably is still the general energy of what it takes, at least from a career perspective to be perceived as successful. To either be at the top of your field in some capacity, or to be an entrepreneur and create your own thing.”

Kris: "That's why I think the internet is the great equalizer. There's no excuse anymore that you can't become successful or financially free, because nobody would give you a shot. If you're an artist, you can start creating your music and put it on Soundcloud, with nobody else and create a buzz there. If you like to knit sweaters, you can start recording yourself knitting sweaters and create a sweater knitting community and if you have enough of a community and have enough of a story to tell, you can create financial freedom in that way."

Brian: "I'm wondering, like, being at the top of your pecking order, no matter what culture you fall in, is probably a goal that a lot of people aspire towards. But is the pecking order a universal thing from a human perspective or does culture influence it? Does an Italian millionaire have the same attributes as an American millionaire?"

Kris: "Personally, I wonder if fame, or pecking order, or being at the top of something is losing its luster a bit. Because of how under scrutiny you are as a person in that position. Now of course, with great power comes great responsibility, but is it losing its luster in the sense of one day, I can go to the store, do what I need to do, without nobody coming to bother me."

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