How do we measure the success of our lives? If you have a great job, where you achieve a sense of connection and contribution, is that enough?

Most of us understand that our personal lives are just as important, if not more than our work lives. In David Brooks' book, The Second Mountain, he offers the distinction in terms of time. We are indeed in a particular mode in the earlier years of our career. We are intent on achievement at the work place. It's about acquisition and title and image. When we reach a certain level of maturity, it becomes more about giving rather than getting.

This theory makes me wonder about how we live and when we die. Do we all get the opportunity to climb a "second mountain" during our time here? What about those who jump right onto their second mountain by abandoning their first? Who are they and what did they understand that perhaps others did not? Do they live happier lives then most of us who take their time or perhaps never make it to that second mountain?