You hear a lot of talk about IQ (Intelligence Quotient), and since it's so clearly measured (at least according to some) it's fun to figure out who has the biggest score and then be jealous of them or assume that their IQ explains their success. In recent decades there's been a lot of emphasis on EIQ (Emotional Intelligence Quotient) and recognizing that it's as important and possibly more important to attaining "success". Now I put quotes around success because most of the time in business or personal fulfillment literature, success is closely correlated to money. But you and I both know how untrue that is. Of course, now I have to admit that while I know in my head that money won't make me happy, I still want more of it, and still measure success in terms of money constantly. OK, but what is success? What if success were tied to something more like satisfaction with life? Or maybe even better would be satisfaction multiplied by positive impact? What if I had very little mullah, but felt very satiated AND had a significant impact on the world around me? For instance, what if I were a kindergarten teacher at a private school that couldn't afford to pay me well because the state didn't support independent educational options? I might impact hundreds of kids over the course of my life and each of them in a deeply powerful and personal way, but I wouldn't likely make much money or find myself on the front of any magazine's 40 under 40 list.
So, what about FQ? I know, it looks a little bit like a four letter word, but it stands for Faith Quotient. How successful could you be if you had only average IQ and average EQ but high FQ? When I think of high FQ, I think of people like David Wilkerson. I don't know how much of the other two he had, but he had heaps of grace mixed with mounds of faith and he leveraged them both to awesome effect. All three of these quotients are gifts from God and to him who has been given much, much is expected. Whether you're smart, or good with people, or have deep pockets of faith, you have what you have to bring glory to God. And when you use your gifts to bless the world around you, you bring glory to your maker. We have both the duty and the joy of taking whatever quotients we've been given to impact the world and that is my definition of "success".
"Until now you've not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive and your joy will be made complete." - John 16:24
So, how about you? What's your quotient? Which one is your strength? Or do you have an even different quotient?
PS. I made up Faith Quotient (FQ), but of course I wasn't the first to do so. Here's an interesting article from 1955 by a game show host on the topic: http://www.unz.org/Pub/AmMercury-1955feb-00129