I started working at a pretty young age. I also liked to excel at whichever job I was doing. I remember the local newspaper had a contest to see which news carrier could increase their subscriptions the most. This meant going door to door to all the non-customers and asking them to receive the daily newspaper. Unfortunately, I won. Yes, I got the $100 savings bond, but it also meant that my one hour long paper route now took three hours to complete. Oops!!!

Success often has unintended consequences.

While I was in college, I worked full time, about 30 hours per week as a university tour guide, and worked my evenings as a Resident Assistant. I was also a double major and finished in four years. This led to many exciting job offers as I was graduating. I took a nice job with a fantastic salary and I was the envy of a lot of my peers.

My idea of success certainly had unintended consequences.

My bright and shiny salary meant that I now had money to spend. I can still remember the book store at Boston’s Prudential tower that I first used my Citibank Visa. I remember going into the store with the idea of making my first credit card purchase. I didn’t really care what I bought, as long as I left after signing the first, of many, slips of paper. I ended up with a book by the humorist, Dave Barry, and had a few laughs.

The last laugh was on me.

Flash forward many years and you found someone, with a fantastic salary, living well above his means. It hadn’t taken long for things to get out of control. I had accumulated almost $30,000 in credit card debt. I had a car I couldn’t really afford and I had student loans that seemed impossibly high. Every check I earned was allocated well before I received it. What was I to do?

Then I remembered what my dad had always reminded me. It was the answer to the question, ‘œHow do you eat an elephant?’ Answer ‘“ One bite at a time.

I remember this crossroad in my life. I started learning as much as I could about personal finance. The books that I now bought were not funny but helped me realize what I needed to do.

After changing the way that I looked at finances, I put some money together as a safety net and started eating my elephant. Today, I do not let credit card balances stick around. I pay them off at each statement. I also have no car payment and I live in a house that I can afford.

Success often had intended consequences.

When you learn to take control over your credit cards and your debt, you learn how to make these tools work for you. My partner and I have been pretty successful in using debt to help grow our investments. But now these moves are calculated, and are not just because we have the money to spend. Financial success is a learning process. More money today does not mean greater success tomorrow.

How do you perceive success? Have you ever had a success lead to something unexpected?