Robert Glazer has a theory about why so many successful people feel unfulfilled. It’s not that they lack ambition or discipline. It’s that they’re climbing the wrong mountain.
“The wrong climb is the one that you’re sort of bullied onto by society or parents or community and peers,” explains Glazer, the bestselling author and founder of global marketing agency Acceleration Partners. “You get really good at it, but the thing is you don’t really enjoy it.”
This pattern of chasing external definitions of success while neglecting internal alignment lies at the heart of Glazer’s latest book, The Compass Within. Written as a workplace parable, the book follows a character navigating challenges across what Glazer calls “the big three”: community, relationships and work.
“I think success has become very externally projected,” Glazer says. “The true definition of success is figuring out what’s important to you and how to align what you’re doing to that.”
The Three Climbs
Glazer identifies three distinct paths that people tend to take in life. The first is the “Wrong Climb,” or pursuing someone else’s definition of success. The second is the “Disappointing Summit”: You chose the path, you enjoy it most days, but you tell yourself that the destination will justify the sacrifice.
The problem? When high achievers finally reach that summit, it rarely delivers. Glazer has even asked rooms full of successful leaders what they do when they finally achieve a long-term goal and the answer is almost always universal: Move the bar and pick another goal.
Then, there’s the “Vista Climb.” “If it’s aligned with your values, I always say it’s a [manageable] 5% grade, and the view’s pretty good from the beginning,” he explains. “You’d be happy to go out there and do it for an hour a day. You’d be happy to do it for eight hours a day. Yeah, it rains. It’s hard some days, it’s not easy all the days, but you’re enjoying the work and what you’re doing.”
Turning on the Headlights
So how do you find the right climb for you? Glazer’s framework begins with six questions designed to reveal behavioral patterns from your past, everything from identifying environments that most engage you to considering what you’d want said in your eulogy. The responses reveal recurring themes that form the foundation of your values.
Finding your core values, Glazer argues, is like turning on the headlights in a dark tunnel. “You can drive the car through the tunnel, through the fog, a lot of walls and get it out, and it’s going to look like crap, but ideally you would avoid the walls,” he says.
But Glazer distinguishes his approach from picking aspirational words like “integrity” and “family.” Those single-word platitudes rarely drive decisions. Instead, he uses what he calls the “Core Validator,” a set of questions that determines whether a value is truly yours. Can you use it to make a decision? When you imagine the opposite of that value, does it strike a nerve?
That second question is particularly revealing. “I can figure out people’s top core value by asking them what they hate the most,” Glazer explains. “The violation of your core value, something that really bothers you, the inverse is usually your dominant core value.”
Resilience Reimagined
This clarity becomes especially valuable when building resilient teams. Glazer points to a quote from late attorney, political spouse and author Elizabeth Edwards: “Part of resilience is deciding to make yourself miserable over something that matters or deciding to make yourself miserable over something that doesn’t matter.”
“I think we are inherently more resilient when it’s aligned to our values,” Glazer says. “And I actually think there’s some things you need to be less resilient about. You need to be more resilient about the stuff that matters and is worth doing. And you need to be less resilient around the stuff that you’re like, ‘You know what? I don’t care. It doesn’t matter to me.'”
Glazer points to leaders like Patagonia’s founder, Yvon Chouinard, who once famously discontinued an entire popular, profitable product after seeing the environmental damage it was causing. “The thing about core values decisions is that they’re usually harder and more controversial in the short term, and then, they age really well,” he notes.
For leaders seeking greater resilience, Glazer offers a simple question: “How could I make better decisions if I was super clear about what I valued?”
The answer is the first step toward finding the right climb.
Discover Your Core Values
Robert Glazer’s process begins with these six questions:
In what nonwork environments are you highly engaged?
In what professional roles or jobs did you do your best work?
What help, advice or qualities do others come to you for?
What would you want said about you in your eulogy?
When were you disengaged in a personal or professional setting?
What qualities in other people do you struggle with the most?
Identify recurring keywords in your answers and group similar ones together. These clusters form your core value themes. Now, run each theme through the ‘Core Validator’ by asking:
Can you use it to make a decision, past or present?
When you imagine the opposite, does it strike a nerve?
Is it a phrase rather than one word?
Can you objectively rate yourself on it?
If a theme passes all four tests, you’ve found a true core value.
Featured image courtesy of Robert Glazer
This article was first published in the May/June 2026 issue of SUCCESS Magazine. Get your copy here.
