Why People Chase Success and Lose Themselves

Main subjects

AVAlexander VolchekTimeF/Friend / friendsChildren, parenting, and family lifeHealth, rest, and lifestyleCHChildren

Main threads of the conversation

• 00:00The problem of success: why it takes hold of people
• 02:51A world of constant busyness and competition
• 03:42What counts as success?
• 07:04Does the idea of success take hold of you personally?
• 11:02The boundary between ambition and inaction
• 16:40Where the thirst for success comes from
• 19:00Ego as a driving force
• 20:17Impulses worth noticing
• 26:30How to relate to success

Claims made here

Individual claims identified in the material: who said them, when, and what kind of thought they express. Each timestamp opens that point in the video.

• 03:34

  You could say that someone is striving for success because they want a good job. Or does that not count as striving for success? Does it mean wanting to earn a billion dollars?

  Alexander Volchek

• 05:10

  So the question is always how people judge from the outside what success is and whether someone is striving for it—even if we ask whether that state and aspiration are normal.

  Alexander Volchek

• 05:21

  Another question is what you actually feel inside, and why you need it.

  Alexander Volchekrecommendationcomparison

• 10:13

  Then there is always the question of this subject taking hold of someone.

  Alexander Volchek

• 12:45

  The first thing to say and understand is that every person, absolutely every person, has an endless variety of these boundaries you describe, from minus to plus.

  Alexander Volchekrecommendation

• 23:58

  I find it easy to spend time with children, for example, but I can say this very openly.

  Alexander Volchek

• 26:21

  And in some areas I see less well because I do not have that perception or that knowledge. I simply do not have that knowledge.

  Alexander Volchekcausecomparison

• 28:47

  You mentioned my wife in relation to children. When I look at another person, I look at you, for example, and how you interact with children.

  Alexander Volchek

• 31:01

  They will suffer, and we will suffer, because we will think they do not want to do it, do not want to think, or are stupid.

  Alexander Volchekcause

• 32:15

  On the other hand, at a particular time I may choose not to work with that person because I understand that they cannot carry out this task. And I have that right.

  Alexander Volchekcausecomparison