<p><strong>Laura Gassner-Otting (Wall Street Journal bestselling author) joins Cathal in the London studio to challenge everything we think we know about success.</strong></p><p><br></p><p><strong>This is Laura&#39;s UK/Ireland podcast debut, recorded at Christmas after a mulled wine with incredible energy.</strong></p><p><br></p><p>IN THIS EPISODE:</p><p>The Four Horsemen of Success (and why they drive Laura batty):</p><p><br></p><p>1. &quot;I&#39;ll be happy when...&quot; - Life is short. Refuse to not be happy NOW.</p><p>2. Purpose - Your job doesn&#39;t need a white hat to have purpose.</p><p>3. Follow your passion - The &quot;live, laugh, love&quot; tattoo of career advice.</p><p>4. Balance - We need alignment, not balance. Code-switching is exhausting.</p><p><br></p><p>Need to Make vs Want to Make Numbers:</p><p>We all have two numbers. Need to make: bills, food, school. Want to make: Claridge&#39;s vs Holiday Inn, Rolls Royce vs Hyundai. In between are the sacrifices you&#39;ll make.</p><p><br></p><p>Caroline&#39;s Story:</p><p>Laura wanted to promote her to VP. Caroline said no thank you. She&#39;d just had a baby and wanted to be present. Three years later, she got promoted. Still with the firm 10 years after Laura sold it.</p><p><br></p><p>Eleanor Roosevelt: &quot;We would worry much less about what other people thought about us if we realised how seldom they did.&quot;</p><p><br></p><p>Whose Goal Is This?</p><p>We define success at 17-18 before our frontal lobe is fully formed. Laura dropped out of law school - it was her fourth grade teacher&#39;s goal, not hers. Give yourself grace to change.</p><p><br></p><p>Work-Life Alignment &gt; Balance:</p><p>You&#39;re friends with coworkers on social media. It&#39;s already integrated. Stop separating work and life. Find alignment instead. Code-switching is exhausting.</p><p><br></p><p>Feeling Seen vs Feeling Loved:</p><p>Laura&#39;s therapy revelation: She felt loved transactionally (got grades = we love you). But did she feel seen? Could she have said &quot;I don&#39;t want law school, I want to be an artist&quot;?</p><p><br></p><p>Key Insights:</p><p>&quot;I refuse to not be happy NOW. They retire and have heart attacks.&quot;</p><p><br></p><p>&quot;Follow your passion is the live, laugh, love tattoo of career advice.&quot;</p><p><br></p><p>&quot;I think we&#39;re not too busy. We&#39;re too busy doing things that don&#39;t matter to us.&quot;</p><p><br></p><p>&quot;When you find alignment, you just move from one to the other pretty seamlessly.&quot;</p><p><br></p><p>ABOUT LAURA GASSNER-OTTING:</p><p><br></p><p>Author of &quot;Limitless: How to Ignore Everybody, Carve Your Own Path&quot; and &quot;Wonderhell: Why Success Doesn&#39;t Feel Like It Should.&quot;</p><p><br></p><p>20 years as executive recruiter, sold her firm, now speaker/consultant. Regularly on Good Morning America.</p><p><br></p><p>Website: lauragassnerotting.com</p><p><br></p><p>Submit your career dilemma: betteratwork.net</p><p><br></p><p>Better at Work - Making work better, one conversation at a time.</p><p>New episodes every Thursday.</p><p><br></p><p>Hosted by Cathal Quinlan</p>