What Are All the Trophies You Have in your Life?
A story about whiskey and achievement
What does a bottle of whiskey mean to you?
For me, it means a lot. It’s like a trophy.
People usually think that they will be happy when they achieve a specific goal.
They will be happy when they finish college. They will be happy when they get a job. They will be happy when they get married. And so on. It’s always something in the future.
True happiness is in the journey. As Shawn Achor wrote in his book, The Happiness Advantage, happiness is the precursor to success. It’s not merely the result.
Every journey has its ups and downs. In difficult moments, it’s essential to remember everything that you’ve achieved so far.
What is your starting point?
I had my first international flight in 2014. I was 25 years old. The flight was from Porto Alegre (Brazil) to San Francisco (United States).
I had started a gaming company in 2012 but hadn’t succeeded in transforming it into a profitable business yet. I would stay three weeks in Silicon Valley to learn how to do that with people more experienced than me.
During my flight, an attendant offered me wine. At that time, I had very little money. My first thought was how much that would cost me. I said NO to the attendant. I had no money for fancy beverages.
I didn’t know that the wine was free, though. Luckily, the guy seated next to me told me that on time for me to change my mind and accept the wine. He was also an entrepreneur, and we’ve been talking during the flight.
After drinking the wine, I noticed that they were offering other alcoholic beverages. I saw that they were also offering whiskey.
The rich and the powerful
According to David Daiches, drinking whiskey is a toast to civilization. It’s like a tribute to the continuing culture of the world. It’s a spirit that commemorates the good life, the determination of strong men who uses the resources of nature to refresh themselves.
The rich and the powerful no doubt are go-getters. They’re people who want to get what they want in their lives and were successful in doing just that. They also fully enjoy their accomplishments through their full senses.
The whiskey, therefore, is the most eloquent drink that embodies their experience towards success. Toasting to one lets them remember their personal triumphs in reaching the heights of affluence and power.
I have never drunk that beverage before. Whiskey looked fancy to me. I wanted to drink it.
I called the attendant and asked if I could have some whiskey. I didn’t know if it was for free or not. Luckily, it was.
I had no idea how whiskey tasted. As I took my first sip, the beverage went down, burning me. It was strong.
I wasn’t sure if I liked it or not. I only wanted to keep drinking the beverage that rich people drunk. I was feeling special at that moment.
What are your goals?
A year later, I transformed my company into a profitable one. I started traveling to other countries more frequently. Every chance I had, I drunk whiskey. I learned to enjoy the beverage. It looked like a status symbol for me.
It’s like people who own Apple products. That’s part of them. That’s a product that says something about them. People that own Apple products are proud of that. They are proud of showing the Apple logo to others.
Well, I’m also one of these people.
My company kept growing, and I decided to try more expensive whiskey.
My goal was to drink the Johnie Walker Blue Label whiskey one day.
What do you see when you look back?
Sometimes, we forgot about all the good things we achieved in life. We spent most of our time worrying about what we don’t have instead of being grateful for what we have.
I faced burnout in 2018 and started therapy to learn to deal with that. I was working a lot to help my company grow. I still had a long way to go. I couldn’t see all the good I already have done, though.
At one of the sessions, my therapist asked me to tell him all the good things I have done with my company. I couldn’t answer at the first moment. I didn’t believe I had achieved something to be proud of.
As I was quiet, he started telling me some of the things I already told him before. As he started talking, I realized all the amazing things I have achieved with my company. He asked me to continue, and then I said other things that I have done.
To the future
Nowadays, I have a small collection of eight different whiskeys. They are like trophies for me. They remind me of everything that I have achieved professionally.
Sometimes it’s harder to keep going. Always remember where you were and where you are now.
I barely made money the first time I had my first whiskey. My company was struggling, but I was able to fix that. I visited more than ten countries because of my business. I was able to make a living from it and have my own place.
I had a goal to buy a Johnie Walker Blue Label whiskey when I turned 30. As that was the year that I was facing burnout, I ended up not purchasing the beverage. I bought it a year later after turning 31.
It was the most expensive beverage I had purchase in my life so far. I drunk half of the bottle. It was amazing.
The bottle is now part of my whiskey collection. It’s one of my trophies, reminding me of all of the fantastic achievements I had in my professional life.
What are yours?
