If you would like to have the Quest-4 team give a presentation or host a group discussion on the topic of success, send an e-mail to pathfinder@quest-4.com and we'll do our best to arrange it as we pass through your city.

An Evening In Omaha

An Evening Of Discussion

While in Omaha, Nebraska, the Quest-4 team had the opportunity to lead a group discussion at the local Borders bookstore on the elements of success and personal fulfillment. The group discussion, moderated by the Quest-4 team, touched on such topics as the meaning of success, finding balance in daily lives, seeking out your path in life, and leadership.

The Group

In attendance that evening were:

David Belitz (29) Sculptor
Bill Bianco (33) Attorney, VP and General Council for a manufacturing company
Bill Brizendine (42) Insurance
Mike Bruening (33) Business Recruitment Omaha Chamber of Commerce
Jolene Crook (34) Adolescent Counselor
Tammy Evans (28) Juvenile Justice Tracker
Cecil Hicks, Jr. (30) Senior Human Resource Administrator at an insurance company
Deborah Knott (31) Public Relations and Event Planning
Annette Mundy (34) Interior Designer
Debra Nelson (40) Teacher
Mark Rabick (25) Systems Analyst
Rebecca Wolff (28) Investment broker

Discussion Excerpts

Here are just a few of the insights from the evening of discussion:

Quantifying Success

"Society for the most part defines or quantifies success with money. People are wanting to move to a different lifestyle that emphasizes family, friends, balance, but people still want to hang onto the life of the big car, house, and material goods. And there's sometimes a conflict with the two. "

"In my opinion, money will not make people happy, it just makes life much more convenient. I think people all have the same needs. They want to provide for themselves and their families. They want to be appreciated. "

"Money is the easy way to measure and quantify success. For me my career is important to me. I measure my success on my career goals. "

"It's easy to see that money is important. You can't watch a television show or pick up a paper and not see the influence of money in everything. Money is the easy way to define success, then there're the warm and fuzzy that everyone wants to believe is a driving force, but you can't quantify it If you compare two families each with house, 2.5 kids, and a dog in the back and one has a Lexus parked in the driveway and the other a station wagon, I think the natural tendency is to say that the Lexus family is more successful. "

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"I don't think there is always going to be an even balance, a color wheel balance. There are sometimes where certain things in life take precedence over other things. Balancing is a tough thing. "

"Before you can have balance you have to have priorities. You have to have already defined what's more important, this or that. When people have problems with balance, it's often a problem with defining priorities. "

"I had a lot more balance when I was working a regular job because I required to work a certain amount of hours. Now that I have more freedom, man do I like to work my butt off then take a whole month off. "

"When you talk about balance, I think a lot of it comes from the gut level and I don't think enough of us, including myself, spend enough time really just getting in touch with that. How many times do we get going in a million different directions and not take the time to go 'What's balance to me and what's important?' "

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"My Dad is 70 years old and I don't think he thought much about being happy in his job. He thought about how am I going to put food on the table. How am I going to support my family? It was a responsibility and it didn't matter if you liked your job. "

"I don't see our generation (Gen X) as selfish. I see it as self-actualizing. We're asking questions about our spirituality and our own personal growth and where I want to be and how I can be a better person. It wasn't about just making ends meet and putting food on the table. We're delaying children and marriage and we have a lot more time to think about things before diving into responsibility."

"I think our generation (Gen X) is more apt to say "Hey, I don't like this." And we have more opportunities and choices than our parents. Because of responsibilities, our parents didn't have the luxury of taking ethical or individual stands without risking the security of the job they were working. On the flip side, I think our generation wants everything now and doesn't always look at the long term implications."

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"Some people's search for the supposed success seems to put them in debt because they're trying to look like the Jones'. "

"I think that most people don't really look inside themselves to really see what it will take to make them happy. For some reason we think these outside forces and the images we are bombarded with about what success is will eventually make us happy if we can just achieve that image. "

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"Find a mentor. "

"Actively pursue success. It usually won't come out and bite you."

"Be kind to other people. Kindness has gotten me a long way. "

"You have to take risks, but it's important to analyze your risks and take the calculated ones."

"There's not a person or thing in this world that can make me happy, except for myself so that's important. The other thing is to be absolutely honest with yourself and others.

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Quest-4's presentation at the University of Wisconsin - Stout.

Quest-4's focus group in Sacramento.

Quest-4's focus group in Columbus.

© Copyright Chris Moeller & Brian Ardinger, 1998