Here’s Why “Success” Is Always Changing (2189)

Achievement changes, but fulfillment writes the legacy. In today’s episode, Kevin and Alan share why chasing money alone leaves you empty, how fulfillment shifts with each stage of life, and what it really takes to feel both accomplished and aligned. Packed with real stories, powerful frameworks, and honest insights, this conversation will help you rethink what success means and how to build a version that truly lasts. Catch the full conversation today.

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Show notes:
(2:46) The truth about success is always changing
(4:01) The four buckets of success explained
(9:58) Reaching the point of success and fulfillment
(11:15) Redesigning success to fit your life
(12:15) Success, fulfillment, and entrepreneurship myths
(16:31) Outro

🎙️ Hosted by Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

Next Level University is a top-ranked daily podcast for dream chasers and self-improvement lovers. With over 2,100 episodes, we help you level up in life, love, health, and wealth one day at a time. Subscribe for real, honest, no-fluff growth every single day.

Chapters

• 2:46 The truth about success is always changing
• 4:01 The four buckets of success explained
• 9:58 Reaching the point of success and fulfillment
• 11:15 Redesigning success to fit your life
• 12:15 Success, fulfillment, and entrepreneurship myths
• 16:31 Outro

Transcript

Kevin Palmieri

(0:00) I have a client who gets paid $10, $15, $20,000 for each client that they get. (0:06) And on our conversation today, they were talking about how they're not nearly as fulfilled as they were before they started making that kind of money.

Alan Lazaros

(0:13) Way back in the day, I've read a book called Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. (0:18) It's his biography. (0:20) And before anyone would come and work at Apple, his very first question was, is this person going to fall in love with Apple?

Kevin Palmieri

(0:28) Welcome to Next Level University. (0:31) I'm your host, Kevin Palmieri. (0:33) And I'm your co-host, Alan Lazarus.(0:36) At NLU, we believe in a heart-driven, but no-BS approach to holistic self-improvement for dream chasers.

Alan Lazaros

(0:42) Our goal with every episode is to help you level up your life, love, health, and wealth.

Kevin Palmieri

(0:49) We bring you a new episode every single day on topics like confidence, self-belief, self-worth, self-awareness, relationships, boundaries, consistency, habits, and defining your own unique version of success.

Alan Lazaros

(1:05) Self-improvement in your pocket, every day, from anywhere, completely free.

Kevin Palmieri

(1:11) Welcome to Next Level University. (1:17) Next Level Nation today for episode number 2,189. (1:20) Here's why success is always changing.(1:23) The reason I disappeared from the frame when you were talking is I thought I had that book. (1:26) I have a different book. (1:27) It's not the book you were talking about.(1:29) I'm talking to a client today. (1:30) I've been working with this client for a long time, huge fan, great person, doing great things in the world. (1:35) And recently, they switched their business and now they're doing a lot of high-ticket stuff.(1:40) So they work with very, very high-net-worth individuals with emotional intelligence and relationships and just working on the inner stuff. (1:50) And they've gotten some really, we're talking, I don't know the exact number, but anywhere from $10,000 to $40,000 to work on this specific program. (2:00) Nice.(2:01) Great, great money. (2:02) Awesome. (2:02) And that's what they wanted.(2:03) They said, I'd like to test this high-ticket thing out and see what happens. (2:05) Awesome. (2:05) Love it.(2:06) Our conversation today was around the fact that they don't feel nearly as motivated to do that type of work anymore. (2:14) They don't feel fulfilled at all when it comes to that. (2:18) I won't say that.(2:19) That's putting words in their mouth. (2:20) They don't feel nearly as fulfilled. (2:22) As they thought they were going to or as they used to?(2:26) Yes, because they did the same work before, just in a different way with more people. (2:33) And they don't feel like they're having nearly the same amount of impact. (2:37) They're impacting one person very deeply because they're working with them for a long period of time and going through the work, but they want to help a lot of people.(2:46) That's why success is always changing, because you know what you think you want until you get what you want and realize there are pieces of it that you like and there's pieces that you don't. (2:56) Maybe you like this more than you thought. (2:58) Maybe you like this less than you thought.(2:59) I don't know. (3:00) I'll tell you this. (3:01) One of the things, so I thought I was going to be a mindset coach who was going to have call after call after call after call after call after call.(3:11) I have calls, but not the amount that Alan does. (3:15) And I very much enjoy that. (3:17) I love the fact that my calendar is not booked all day, every day, because I like doing the stuff behind the scenes that I didn't, well, I think I always kind of enjoy doing certain stuff behind the scenes, but I wouldn't know that unless I get to this point.(3:31) So that's why it's so valuable to continue the process and continue the mission and continue the journey, because you don't, I'll speak for myself, I didn't know what success actually was until I achieved quote unquote success and realized there are a lot of this, a lot of pieces of this I really enjoy and a lot of this sucks and it's a lot different than I thought it was going to be. (3:50) Some of that is par for the course and some of that you can go back to the previous episode and you can change the approach. (3:56) You can change the strategy based on what you're doing.(3:59) That's the thought for today.

Alan Lazaros

(4:01) When I go on other shows and I tell my story, not always depending on the context and the listener and how much time we have. (4:08) So I usually don't do this unless we have a certain amount of time, but I talk about the four buckets of success and how we all go through all four. (4:19) And statistically speaking, most people never get to the fourth bucket.(4:22) The fourth bucket is what you and I got to in our thirties and you'll understand in a second. (4:26) I don't know if I've ever said this to you. (4:27) So the first bucket you are, and I'll use me as an example, but I want everyone thinking of themselves.(4:34) You are unsuccessful externally and unfulfilled internally. (4:38) I was a car kid and a bus boy at a golf course and I was wildly unfulfilled and I was also very unsuccessful. (4:47) And again, I was successful compared to my peers, but I made minimum wage and I hated my job and I hated my life.(4:53) So unsuccessful. (4:55) Okay. (4:56) That's bucket one.(4:57) That's where we all start. (4:58) No one is born. (4:59) I am successful and fulfilled.(5:01) That's not a thing. (5:03) Bucket two, figure out how to make success. (5:06) Kevin and I made six figures in our early twenties.(5:11) Fuck yeah, baby. (5:12) Late, late twenties for me. (5:14) Oh, late twenties.(5:17) I, I made six figures in my early twenties. (5:20) Successful. (5:22) I robots and SATA technologies, Tyco safety products, Oz development, Cognex, inside sales engineer, outside sales engineer, global product manager, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, climb, climb, climb.(5:32) Okay. (5:33) Very externally successful. (5:36) I went from painting up in Maine for minimum wage in the hot sun to basically $180,000 US per year within like a four year period.(5:53) It was crazy. (5:55) It appeared like overnight success from the outside in, I'm sure in hindsight, I wrote an article about this, even though that basically started when I started high school, but anyways, so I went from $8 an hour painting houses in Maine, us in new England to almost $200,000 a year within a four year span. (6:22) I was externally successful, but I was internally unfulfilled.(6:27) I just talked on the last episode about, I did very well, but I didn't, it wasn't fulfilling work for me. (6:37) I sold industrial automation equipment, GE, Frito-Lay, Unilever, which Ben and Jerry's, all these companies, Vermont, Connecticut, and Western Massachusetts were my territory. (6:48) And I would, one thing I will say was really cool is I got to see all the manufacturing.(6:52) It was actually really fascinating, but I was on the road. (6:58) I had to have lunch and dinner and sales and meeting people. (7:02) I don't know.(7:04) I wasn't a huge fan necessarily, but I did very well. (7:09) So external success and internal fulfillment. (7:12) So external, so bucket one, not successful externally, not fulfilled internally.(7:16) Bucket two, very successful externally, definitely not fulfilled internally. (7:21) Cognex had a motto, work hard, play hard. (7:24) And I used to say, work hard, play harder.(7:26) I drank too much and too often. (7:27) I didn't take care of my health. (7:28) I was unfulfilled.(7:30) I was spreading myself too thin. (7:34) Third bucket. (7:35) So car accident happens at 26.(7:37) I turned my life around. (7:38) I find personal development, personal growth, self-improvement, fitness, happy, healthy, productive, and fulfilled as hell. (7:47) But I liquidate all my assets.(7:49) I paid off 84 grand worth of college debt in my early 20s. (7:52) I had $150,000 in a Vanguard account when I started. (7:54) Alan Lazarus LLC, what you'll never learn in school but desperately need to know.(7:58) You know it, baby. (7:59) I wanted to bring personal development to the masses. (8:05) Good luck getting speeches at high schools and colleges with that tagline.(8:08) So fitness model, fitness competitor, fitness coach, 43 photo shoots, three fitness competitions. (8:16) I'm doing it. (8:17) Social media, Instagram, Snapchat, you name it.(8:21) And I'm very fulfilled, super fulfilled internally. (8:26) Love my life. (8:27) The athlete lifestyle was fucking awesome.(8:31) Holy shit. (8:32) I was napping at noon. (8:33) It was the best.(8:35) But I was unsuccessful. (8:36) I liquidated all my assets. (8:38) My net worth went down, down, down, down, down, all the way fucking past zero.(8:44) And I was super fulfilled but I couldn't sustain it. (8:51) And that was probably seven, eight years ago, maybe nine years ago. (8:57) And then Kevin and I, overnight success.(9:00) Yes. (9:02) I know. (9:02) The first two years in business, Kevin and I grossed a total of $13,000.(9:10) Not great in New England. (9:14) That is lower than minimum wage. (9:16) And now we are wild successes with, no, the truth is we made more in July of this year than we did the entire first three years in business.(9:29) And so we had $100,000 a month in July. (9:31) We're doing very well. (9:32) I'm very grateful.(9:34) So now we have finally reached the fourth bucket. (9:37) So the first bucket, unsuccessful, unfulfilled. (9:40) Second bucket, successful, ooh, not fulfilled.(9:45) This kind of sucks. (9:47) Then you flip the script. (9:48) I'm fulfilled as hell, baby.(9:50) But you run out of money so you can't sustain it. (9:52) Also sucks. (9:53) Fourth bucket, you are super successful and super fulfilled.(9:58) And the work you do in the world not only is paid well, but it also brings meaning and purpose and passion and fulfillment. (10:06) And that's a mountain that gets higher as you climb it. (10:09) And that's where we finally got.(10:11) It took us 30 years. (10:12) I was on a podcast yesterday and this woman, I don't know her age because I didn't want to offend her and ask her age, but I think she was in her forties or fifties. (10:20) And I said, it took me too long to get to the fourth bucket.(10:22) She said, it sounds to me like you got there pretty fucking quick, man. (10:25) And I'm like, no, no, no, no. (10:27) I've been working on that since I was a little kid.(10:30) I always, when I was a little kid, I was like, why is everyone so fucking miserable? (10:33) Right. (10:34) And I think it took us way too fucking long personally, but we did it.(10:38) And now it's just don't lose it. (10:40) And that's sustained, which is a whole nother conversation. (10:42) So anyways, I digress.(10:44) What was my point of all that? (10:45) I have no idea. (10:47) What's this episode about?

Kevin Palmieri

(10:51) I would love to tell you I'm joking. (10:54) Here's why success is always changing. (10:56) So success, you think it's going to be a one thing that I would argue that now it's not about sustaining.(11:03) It's about sustaining and rediscovering is what I would say, because there's days where I come to you and I'm like, dude, I'm not fulfilled. (11:11) I'm not like something needs to change. (11:13) I'm not fulfilled.

Alan Lazaros

(11:14) Right. (11:14) Yeah.

Kevin Palmieri

(11:15) Redesign, redesign, redesign. (11:16) So I don't think you ever, you ever get there. (11:19) It's just all, you always get closer and closer and closer and closer.(11:21) I think I'm the most quote unquote successful I've ever been because now I know success to me is not just business. (11:27) It's fitness. (11:28) It's my relationship.(11:29) It's all of that stuff. (11:30) It's, it's all of that, but it takes a lot longer to get to that place.

Alan Lazaros

(11:34) Yeah.

Kevin Palmieri

(11:36) A lot longer to get to that place. (11:38) Four quadrants again.

Alan Lazaros

(11:40) You know it. (11:41) The Y axis. (11:42) No, you can't.

Kevin Palmieri

(11:42) You just, you just gave four buckets.

Alan Lazaros

(11:44) Now you're going to give four quadrants. (11:46) That's the same. (11:47) Same thing.(11:48) All connected. (11:48) I promise. (11:49) Okay.(11:49) We do have to hop after this. (11:50) I know. (11:51) Y axis.(11:52) Success. (11:53) Zero to 10. (11:55) X axis.(11:56) Fulfillment. (11:57) Zero to 10. (11:58) Upper right quadrant is the bucket you want to get to.(12:02) Bottom left quadrant, zero success, zero fulfillment is where you start. (12:06) You got to get from the bottom left to the upper right and that's a full time job. (12:12) That's what this podcast is really trying to help people with.(12:15) We don't want you to just be successful. (12:17) We want you to be successful and fulfilled and we want your success to be a byproduct of who you are and who you aspire to be. (12:23) And I think that that's, that's why entrepreneurship is so appealing because it has this promise of you're going to be, not only will you be successful as hell, you're also going to love what you do.(12:36) Bullshit. (12:38) No chance.

Kevin Palmieri

(12:39) What the economy pays for is usually boring as hell. (12:43) If you could only be one, if you could only be, if you could only be successful or fulfilled, which would you choose? (12:50) You have to choose.(12:52) Do I get to be with Emilia? (12:55) Yeah, nothing else changes.

Alan Lazaros

(12:56) Success. (12:58) I can have a bigger impact with success. (13:00) They're too connected.(13:01) This is, that's an impossible question. (13:03) I like, that's my job. (13:04) Successful and in love?(13:07) Eh, I don't know. (13:08) I like achievement, man. (13:10) I'm biased.(13:11) I tried to not care about it for a while. (13:13) Okay, what about this? (13:13) You could only, you could either have health, wealth, or love.

Kevin Palmieri

(13:15) Just one. (13:16) Health. (13:17) Yeah, I knew you were going to choose that.(13:18) Yeah, love second. (13:19) Wealth third. (13:20) For you, it's wealth first, I think.(13:21) I think probably. (13:22) Yeah. (13:23) I feel like if I have enough money, somebody would take advantage of me and love me.(13:27) You know? (13:30) Hey, been there. (13:31) Yes, yes.(13:32) I'm good. (13:32) For sure. (13:32) I'm good.(13:33) I'm not. (13:33) But, that's the beautiful thing. (13:37) That's the beautiful thing is you don't have to choose.(13:41) Yeah, no. (13:42) Now- It's a design. (13:42) If you don't choose one, you have to do a really good job of designing and you have to get better at everything forever.(13:48) I do think you need to know your syntax though. (13:51) Yeah.

Alan Lazaros

(13:51) What about you? (13:53) What? (13:53) For me, it's success first, fulfillment second.(13:56) I tried to flip those after my car accident and I lost myself. (13:59) Same. (14:00) Success first, fulfillment second.(14:02) Makes sense. (14:03) That's why we now have a, our podcast used to be a personal development focus with success principles. (14:10) Now, we're a success focused with personal development principles and in case you haven't noticed.

Kevin Palmieri

(14:15) I think what we're trying to do is it's like level up yourself so then you can level up your life. (14:21) But, if we only, only always talk about internal stuff. (14:26) Just like if we only talk about external stuff, it only, it's only one half the coin.(14:31) I think what we're trying to do is, is mend those two together and you can become the most successful externally and internally version of yourself. (14:38) That's the goal. (14:39) That is the goal.(14:40) That is the goal. (14:41) All right, cool. (14:41) All right.(14:42) If you are looking to become the most successful version of yourself, you're listening to the right podcast, number one. (14:46) Number two, make sure you got the right journal. (14:48) We have the next level Dreamliner, five minutes a day.(14:50) That's it. (14:51) That's all you need. (14:52) Five minutes a day.(14:53) If you can't do something sustainably, it's not going to be truly valuable. (14:56) It is designed so you can do it sustainably. (14:58) We're going to redesign it in the very near future, but it's on Amazon.(15:01) We'll have the link below. (15:02) I know Alan is using it every day. (15:03) I'm out here jeffing because I'm just, I'm in survival mode right now and you're probably thinking- I'm jeffing too, man.(15:07) Okay. (15:08) Alan's jeffing too. (15:09) I got to out myself.(15:10) I'm jeffing too. (15:10) Kev, why aren't you doing it? (15:12) It only takes five minutes a day.(15:14) I'm asking myself the same fucking question. (15:17) Because we're not perfect. (15:18) That's right.

Alan Lazaros

(15:19) October 2nd, 2025, 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. (15:22) The exact step-by-step process to create your own system of success. (15:26) So if you feel like you're winging it, come to this meetup.(15:29) It's totally free. (15:29) The link will be in the show notes. (15:30) October 2nd, 2025, 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. (15:33) I'm going to take you through a presentation from step-by-step-by-step. (15:36) You will leave with the step-by-step roadmap to create your own train tracks towards your dreams. (15:41) It's like free coaching.(15:43) It is, basically. (15:44) Yeah.

Kevin Palmieri

(15:44) It's like free coaching. (15:45) Free group coaching. (15:46) Free group coaching.(15:47) A group. (15:47) Free group coaching. (15:49) Still free coaching.(15:50) Same bucket. (15:50) Coaching. (15:53) I think one-on-one is way better, but...(15:55) Sure. (15:56) I think so, too. (15:56) But it's like deep.(15:57) It's deeper in the bucket. (15:58) You know, it's like sometimes... (15:59) It's more valuable than a podcast.(16:01) For sure. (16:02) Yeah. (16:02) You know, you make iced coffee and the sugar all goes to the bottom?(16:05) Oh, yeah. (16:06) That's the good stuff right there. (16:07) That's the good stuff.(16:08) That's what I'm saying. (16:09) That's one-on-one. (16:09) That's one-on-one.(16:10) That's what I'm saying. (16:11) Okay. (16:11) Nice.(16:11) Okay, nice. (16:12) But you know how you get that level? (16:13) It's not the bottom.(16:15) It's right above the bottom. (16:16) That's where some of the flavor sits.

Alan Lazaros

(16:19) Yeah. (16:19) On the ice?

Kevin Palmieri

(16:20) That's a meet-up. (16:21) Yeah, yeah. (16:21) Nice.(16:21) Yeah. (16:22) Caramel? (16:22) Swirl?(16:23) Caramel? (16:24) I don't know, man. (16:25) Whatever.(16:25) Caramel? (16:26) Caramel. (16:27) Everybody says it a little bit different.(16:28) Caramel? (16:28) All right, cool. (16:29) Yeah, we're going to get on out of here.(16:30) We're going to caramel our booties on out of here. (16:31) As always, we love you. (16:32) We appreciate you.(16:33) Grateful for each and every one of you. (16:34) And if you are as committed as you say you are to getting to the next level, make sure you tune in tomorrow because we will be here every single day to help you get there. (16:42) Keep reaching for your full potential.

Alan Lazaros

(16:44) Next Level Nation.

Kevin Palmieri

(16:47) Thanks for joining us for another episode of Next Level University. (16:51) We love connecting with the Next Level family.

Alan Lazaros

(16:54) We mean it when we say family. (16:56) If you ever need anything, please reach out to us directly. (16:59) Everything you need to get ahold of us is in the show notes.

Kevin Palmieri

(17:02) Thank you again, and we will talk to you tomorrow.