Phil Castle, The Business Times

Corey Ciocchetti tells stories to make points. Like the one about the greyhound that refused to run the biggest race of his life after realizing the rabbits he chased weren’t real.

It’s a cautionary tale, Ciocchetti says, because many people chase money, good looks and respect when what they really want is contentment, friendships and integrity. “You’ll never get enough of what you do not need to make you happy.”

Ciocchetti shared his observations on what he considers true measures of success in his keynote speech at the Entrepreneurship Day event at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction. He literally wrote the book on the subject, one titled “Inspire Integrity: Chasing an Authentic Life.”

Ciocchetti teaches courses on business law and ethics at the University of Denver. He’s won multiple teaching and speaking awards. The University of Denver Alumni Association named him outstanding professor of the year.
He received the Joel Goldman Award for most respected speaker for CampusSpeak, which provides speakers and workshops to college campuses.

Ciocchetti says he studied finance and economics at the University of Denver and received a law degree from the Duke University School of Law because he believed at the time it would make him rich and successful.

He worked for a law firm, but says he was miserable. After climbing the ladder of success, he says he discovered the ladder leaned against the wrong wall.

He subsequently returned to the University of Denver to teach a course in ethics and realized an important requisite. “You have to first believe being a good person matters.”

People believe the lies the world tells them about the value of being richer, prettier, skinnier, more athletic and respected. Those attributes aren’t bad, he says. Until, that is, they define people.

Most people actually want three things, he says, starting with peace and contentment.

Yet, 75 percent of Americans asked in surveys if they wake up happy on a consistent basis answered no, he says.

Ciocchetti says the Greek philosopher Socrates warned against the “barrenness of a busy life.”

Most people also want personal relationships with what they consider good friend, Ciocchetti says — those they’d want to stand next to them when they marry.

Finally, most people want integrity, he says. To be the same person inside and out.

Ciocchetti says the American essayist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson defined success in terms of laughter, the affection of children, the appreciation of honest critics and endurance of betrayal by false friends.

Ciocchetti says success also involves a legacy — as Emerson put it, “to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.”

Success isn’t measured only by results, though, but also progress, Ciocchetti says. “I look at the inches, not the touchdowns.”