LinkedIn presents.

I'm Rufus Griscom, and this is the next big idea.

Today, a road map for finding purpose,

meeting, and success.

If you do something amazing, truly amazing, something that changes people's lives for the better.

Let's say you create a new product, write an astonishingly beautiful novel,

sing a song that just blows people away, a song that people can't stop singing.

Do you think that would give you a sense of enduring happiness?

Let's say you were Charles Darwin or Johann Sebastian Bach

or Aritha Franklin or Nelson Mandela.

Would your accomplishments and the enduring admiration of others

be like a son in which you could bask for the balance of your days?

On some level, for many years, decades even, I have believed this to be true.

If what I do is distinctive enough, beautiful enough, worthy enough,

if it lifts other people up, then I'll be able to put up my feet,

hang out with my buddies, and bask in the afterglow of that accomplishment.

Have you ever thought this?

If you're a striver, you probably have.

Here is the bad news for strivers everywhere.

It turns out people who achieve great success are often among the least happy at the end of their lives.

You can't bank it, it turns out.

The sense of satisfaction we get from accomplishments is like water vapor on a hot day.

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