“To laugh often and love much;
To win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children;
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
To give of one’s self, to leave the world a little better;
To have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived;
……This is to have succeeded!”
But the real truth is that Success does not have any universally accepted or defined meaning. Throughout the ages some of the greatest thinkers and philosophers have struggled to come up with such a definition that will satisfy the varying criteria, without much agreement. Each person will have their own personal idea of what success is, based on their own dreams, desires, goals, and expectation, and even more, the final result will also vary dramatically from person to person. In this respect I am reminded of a comment made to me by one of my patients which, to this day has always intrigued me. During a discussion on the virtues of being successful he commented that:
“Being successful is a matter of personal choice. You can be successful at being successful, or you can be successful at being a loser. It all depends on your comfort levels and how much effort you are willing to expend.”
Whatever the direction ultimately chosen, the most important factor is that success is never measured in episodic terms but rather as a journey that once begun never really ends. As I see it, the degree of success one is able to achieve is directly related to the degree of commitment one is willing to expend on the journey. I do not know of any situation where success was achieved by doing nothing or winning a lottery.
To some extent, it is possible to classify people into several categories related to their ability to become successful. There are:
The Drifters, who develop no idea or interest of what they want to do with their lives. They are quite content to spend their lives drifting like so much flotsam on the river of life, without any goals, or plans or direction. In fact, they are generally unwilling or unable to accept the challenge if it presents itself, choosing the security of being lost in the crowd.
The Dreamers who are full of dreams and hopes and desires, but who are just unable to do what is necessary to achieve them. They prefer to spend their lives making excuses, finding obstacles and postponing action for another time. They are content to sit on the side and allow life to pass by, while lamenting that they are unable, for an endless number of reasons beyond their control, to begin their journey and achieve more.
The Achievers who make up the great majority of successful people. They know what they want, make the effort to learn what needs to be done and then take the necessary action to achieve their dreams. These are the people who embark on their journey and most often give meaning to their lives and achievements.
The meaning of Success is as varied as there are successful people. It really depends on what gives meaning to your life and how far and how wide you are willing to travel to achieve your goals. Also, success is always relative and never absolute, depending more on the individual’s perception and the degree to which he is able to motivate more effort to travel further. Ultimately it comes down to the individual’s value systems and levels of satisfaction. Success may be complete to a person whose cup is full, but incomplete to another, whose bucket although containing a much larger volume, still requires more to fill. This indeed is the true Dilemma of Success, for although we are able to demonstrate some kind of tangible result indicating success, yet it is difficult to compare or quantify because the ultimate assessment is itself intangible, being based on our own subjective perception.
In the end, we are all able to judge success only by our own yardstick. It is wrong and unwise to pass judgment on others whose criteria are different and who clearly have levels of expectation and commitment that are different from our own. Is there any real difference in the “success” of the world’s greatest sprinter, Usain Bolt, running a sub-nine second 100 meters, and the young high school sprinter, Joe Smith, winning his school race in record time. Others may argue differently, but to me, they are indeed equal, for they have both filled their respective containers, though one is only a thimble, and the other, a bucket. In the same context, it is wrong to be critical of the very successful people who seem to have an insatiable appetite to succeed at all cost, apparently oblivious to the effect of this action on the society around. You may disagree with ther actions but you have no alternative but to acknowledge their success. This is the real Paradox of Success, one which very few of us will ever be able to accommodate.
Perhaps Bob Dylan, one of America’s greatest folksingers, songwriter, musician, poet and painter, may well have got it right when he said:
"A person is a success,
if he gets up in the morning,
goes to bed at night,
and in between, does what he wants to do."
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Success is dependent on effort.
………. Sophocles
Success is a ladder you cannot climb
with your hands in your pockets.
…….American Proverb
Success is a journey not a destination.
………Arthur Robert Ashe
Success is the ability to go from one failure to another,
with no loss of enthusiasm.
……Sir Winston Churchill
Success is always ninety percent effort,
and ten percent inspiration.
…..Edward A. Moses
…..Edward A. Moses
The two most important requirements for major success are:
First, being in the right place at the right time, and
Secondly, doing something about it.
…..Ray Kroc
The great secret of Success is to go through life
as a man who never gets used up.
In order to succeed, your desire for success
should be greater than your fear of failure.
……Bill Cosby
Put your heart, mind, intellect and soul even to your smallest acts.
This is the secret of Success.
……..Swami Sivananda
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