Everyone wishes each other success.
It's the socially acceptable blessing we throw around at graduations, job interviews, and New Year's resolutions. "I wish you success!" we say, as if we're gifting someone a lottery ticket.
But I've stopped saying it.
Instead, I wish people clarity.
Clarity about what they're actually buying into. Because success isn't what most people think it is, and the price tag is hidden until checkout.
## Success Is Going Against the Cows
Here's what people get wrong about the "natural order" of things.
We're told success flows from simplicity to calm, like water finding its level. But that's backwards. The natural order of things is chaos—what I call "cows." Herds moving together, following the path of least resistance, grazing where everyone else grazes.
Success means breaking from the herd. It means friction. It means defying the gravity of comfort and convention.
Most people know their destination but have zero clue about the hurdles waiting between here and there. That's the problem with wishing someone success—you're essentially saying "I hope you win a game without knowing the rules."
## Success Is a Trojan Horse
Here's the brutal truth: success is more expensive than people think.
It arrives disguised as a gift, but inside it's packed with costs nobody mentions:
- Relationships that don't survive your growth
- Comfort zones you'll never get back
- Sleep you'll lose to anxiety about losing what you've built
- The person you were before, who dies a little each level up
Success demands sacrifice, but it never tells you what's on the altar until you're already holding the knife.
The hustle culture peddlers selling "just grind harder" are lying by omission. They show you the destination photos but never the receipts for the journey.
## The Price of Moving Worlds
Every successful person I know has paid prices they didn't expect:
The entrepreneur who built a million-dollar company but lost their marriage to 80-hour weeks. The artist who achieved their dream show but discovered fame felt nothing like they imagined. The executive who climbed the ladder only to realize they hated the view from the top.
Success isn't cruel—it's just honest about physics. You can't move from one place to another without friction. You can't defy gravity without burning fuel. You can't break from the herd without walking alone, at least for a while.
## Why I Wish You Clarity Instead
When I say "I wish you clarity," I mean:
Clarity about the real price tag. Not just the obvious costs like time and effort, but the hidden ones like who you'll become and what you'll leave behind.
Clarity about your actual destination. Not the Instagram version of success, but what you specifically want and why you want it.
Clarity about the hurdles. The obstacles aren't bugs in the system—they are the system. They're not roadblocks to success; they're the price of admission.
Success without clarity is just expensive confusion.
## The Gift of Knowing What You're Buying
I don't wish you success because success is a decision, not a destination. And decisions require information.
I wish you the clarity to know exactly what you're signing up for. To understand that success means choosing your hard, not avoiding it. To realize that breaking from the herd means walking alone until you find your tribe.
The most successful people I know aren't the ones who had it easy. They're the ones who knew the price and decided to pay it anyway.
That's not luck. That's clarity.
So here's my wish for you: May you see clearly what success actually costs. May you choose your struggles consciously. And may you never mistake the Trojan horse of success for a gift with no strings attached.
The cows will keep grazing. The question is: are you clear about why you're walking away from the herd?
