Allison Snare: Re-defining “success”
As undergraduate business students in Silicon Valley, we are often taught in our coursework that success is directly correlated to the maximization of profits, revenues, wealth creation, and is the entire understanding of “value adding” operations. However, working in a government agency (or a non profit environment) challenges this doctrine; if the only measurement of success was wealth creation, the tireless workers of the non-profit organizations and government agencies would certainly not fit this limiting model.
Throughout my education at Santa Clara University, I have often been struck by the dichotomy of my coursework in traditional classes like Mergers and Acquisitions in which shareholder wealth creation is emphasized above all else. Many finance professors even goes as far to state that shareholder wealth creation is the ONLY thing of importance in a publicly traded company. While not all enterprises and institutions are innately revenue driven, the culture and values promoted by these companies arguably overshadow any institution that operates under different ideals.
Throughout the last four months at my fellowship, as well as through non-traditional academic experiences - like my experience in Neighborhood Prosperity Initiative/ELSJ partnership with a small Portuguese import store in Alum Rock, San Jose, visiting the social justice organization De-Bug, and working in the Mayor’s Office - I have had the privilege of internalizing the reality that success is not inherently financial. Nonprofit and government organizations provide very real support and fill a gap in our society that, without the dedication and sacrifice of public servants who dismiss the importance of financial gains as a determinant of operational value, we would live in a much more hostile society. It is vital to remember that while it is easy to critique our public servants, largely more so than professionals in a more traditional career, their work is crucial to our society and should be commended for their ability to see pass the traditional definitions of success that we learn in school and in the corporate world.