Who are you serving?  

Are you using your work to serve others, or are you only serving yourself? 

Look, making money is great, earning attention is great, and receiving accolades for your effort is great, too. 

But if your chief aim with everything you do is to enrich your life and your life alone, then I have some unfortunate news for you: 

You’re gonna have a bad time. 

Because eventually the money, the attention, and the accolades become normalized, old and stale. 

But when you are truly in the business of using your talents to help other people? 

Well, you can do that forever. 

Because that’s the good stuff. 

Evolve your focus 

When we decide to take the leap into building something of our own—an app, a business, music, photography, coaching—it often comes from a place of internal discord. 

We don’t like the current state of our lives, so we seek to make a change. 

This takes courage, requires risk, and is absolutely something to be celebrated. 

And using those first-person goals as fuel for the shift is great. 

Some people want more freedom. 

Some want to make more money. 

Some desire more meaning in their work. 

When I set out to build the business that ultimately would become DuPree X, I longed for all three—freedom, money, and meaning. 

Up until then, I had been a professional musician for 15 years, touring at the highest level for a decade. 

But then I got married and had kids, and everything changed. 

I realized I wanted to be home, not on the road, to make more money to support my family, and to do something that allowed me to directly pour into the lives of others in a way that felt more purpose-driven. 

And it’s that last part that truly made the difference. 

Yes, starting a business can solve your money problems, and if you do it correctly, it can give you way more ownership over your time than you may have ever had. 

But once those needs are met, then what? 

That’s when you have to have a reason higher than yourself. 

Because that’s where meaning is found. 

Beware the trap 

Whether you’re an entrepreneur or an artist, the world will tell you that the highest form of success is more, more, more. 

More money. 

More stuff. 

More attention. 

More vanity metrics. 

By that logic, we should all hope to be rich and famous. 

But it’s a trap. 

I’ve stood next to riches and fame on numerous occasions, and I can tell you that those two achievements do not guarantee happiness. 

In fact, unless your heart is in the right place, those two "achievements" can work together to create a prison of misery for the unsuspecting. 

That’s because neither of those goals were ever meant to be goals at all. 

They are byproducts. 

Natural byproducts of the consistent showcasing of mastery and service. 

It is only by doing something at the highest limits of our abilities, continually, for a long period of time, that we can ever hope to reap the benefits in the form of wealth or accomplishment. 

And in my experience, the surest path to that outcome is to use our gifts to serve others. 

Putting it all together 

I used to think the selfish attention grab was a “music” thing. 

Listen to my song! 

Watch my video! 

Love me! 

But I’ve come to realize it’s just human nature, an ever-present side effect of our repeated inability to see beyond our own noses. 

However, if you can give yourself the liberty to take a step back and examine some of the most successful people you admire across industries, you will no doubt see a history of a repeated delivery of products, services, art, and information that enriches the lives of other people. 

Standard Oil made Rockefeller rich, but it also changed energy consumption for every household in America. 

Apple made Jobs rich, but there is a reasonable chance you’re reading this on an iPhone, a device that fundamentally altered the world. 

Thriller made Michael rich, but consider the impact that album has had on music and culture over the past 40 years. 

Now I’m sure there are outliers and exceptions, but my guess is that behind almost every creator, artist, and entrepreneur of significance you know, you will find a deep desire to make the world a better place with their gifts. 

Because of all the strategies for success that are out there, a relentless focus on using your talents to serve others is, so far, the one that has the highest odds for success. 

So don’t feel guilty about profiting from what you do. 

In fact, celebrate that. 

But if you can put other people first, odds are the benefits to you will take care of themselves.