“Fame” Is an Illusion We’ve Made Together. Here’s How to Undo It.

We each hold onto false beliefs about how society operates. These "collective illusions" stifle innovation and erode our ability to make progress together. Todd Rose discovered that one of the most important collective illusions has to do with the way we define a successful life.

“We looked at the private opinions of the American public across 76 different attributes that could go into a successful life. Out of those 76, the vast majority of the American public believes that most people would rank 'fame' as number one. There's just one problem: in private, it's actually dead last.”

When the same group was asked ‘What does a fulfilling life mean to you?,’ the results were even more mystifying. “Out of those 76 trade-off priorities in the thousands and thousands of people that we have studied, no two people were identical. Nobody can tell you what a successful life is; you have to discover that for yourself.”

In the end, what Rose discovered was that if you want to help someone become successful, you must work to understand how they define success first.