EDITOR’S LETTER : Success in many different forms

Why do we celebrate success? To remind ourselves that we can achieve top-line results? To encourage others to live up to the standards we set? Or simply to revel in well-deserved pat on the back?
The reality of lot of public celebration is that it exists to promote our operations to others in the hope of getting more business and, ultimately, making more money. With reputation becoming increasingly important in terms of choosing who to do business with, awards and accolades are on the rise.
While we are in the throes of celebrating business success at NZ Management this month, it seems an opportune time to take look at success in some other guises.
Take Auckland City Mission boss Diane Robertson – her job is to raise money to support and provide for those in need. “When you’ve got nothing to sell but poverty and marginalisation, every dollar we get in has to be used wisely,” she says.
This requires immense business nous and strong sense of the entrepreneurial – getting people to give something for nothing (except feeling of having done good). She seemed good choice to profile this month, complementing the traditional money makers.
Eion Edgar, the recipient of this year’s Visionary Leader title, is another who can be celebrated for achievements outside the business arena. Aside from leading broking firm Forsyth Barr, he and his family are well known as community, sport and arts patrons. These activities hardly bring in the dollars, so the motivation to be involved must stem from elsewhere.
Both these New Zealanders deserve resounding round of applause from us all this month – as do all the finalists and winners in the Top 200 awards.
Success has many different forms and celebrating all of them is vital if New Zealand is to move on from the tall poppy syndrome it is so often – accurately – accused of.
To succeed is good – there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. We don’t shy away from success in sport, so why do we squirm in other arenas?
For New Zealand to maintain or even, shock
horror, improve living standards, will require more people with sufficient drive to succeed and even exceed.
The goal must be to do as well as you can in whatever your chosen endeavour. December
NZ Management celebrates those who have done this in the business arena. We need more of them and more in other sectors to stand alongside in order to achieve the levels of widespread success we covet.