Summary – Success definition
I talked to one of my colleague this morning. To make things easier, let’s call him Peter. Peter is an acting manager to an estate here but he’s going to retire next year. I actually asked him whether he will apply for extension and maybe then he will be confirmed as a manager. He simply answered “No, I don’t need the “Manager” title to become successful. I am already successful by my own definition.”
That simple sentence had left me speechless (For a few seconds of course).
I then continued to ask him what he meant by that. He spent the next 30 minutes telling me how he had managed to send his son and daughter to do medicine. He told me how hard it was for him to find almost $100K to ensure his children get the best from him.
Truly inspiring.
However this entry is not about the sacrifice made by parents for their children.
It is about how the word “Success” is defined differently from one person to another. Some may consider becoming a manager is a success. Another will consider bringing up successful children as their success.
Personally, I think Peter’s ultimate success is when he had figured out his personal definition of success. He defined the word success for him to strive. He knows that money and ranks are not success (at least not to him). That is why he didn’t bother to ask for extension and strive for that “Manager” title.
I find this very interesting. Don’t you?
If I can ask you one question, what’s your definition of success?
Peter did give me one tip to help me answer that question. If you answer “Becoming a millionaire” as your definition of success, and you have made it as a millionaire, can you still smile and say “my life is complete” knowing that today is your last day of your life.
———— Personal Note ————-
Let say the world has a king. He is so powerful that nobody can disagree with him. Everybody is so afraid of him, the world is at peace.
Let say that king exists. Who do you think in this world that is even more powerful that he can touch the king’s head and the king will not mind?
The king’s barber.
Photo Credit – Nattu
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I think that everyone should have a certain idea of the success in each domain, field, part of his life. Still, there are people who do not make from their careers a form of living so we can understand from this. Personally, i think that a person is successful when he’s happy about the things that he’s done. For me, that would be my family.
Helen – That is an interesting way to see success. By equating success to happiness, you can never go wrong. 🙂
Hey I think that the process of reaching “success” would be where the juice in life is, so the amount of happiness that you get from taking action on the success, is already the success in itself.
Great article here.
Baker – An excellent point. It’s never about the destination. It’s the journey that matter. There will always be some people who dream big. They plan and do everything there is to do to achieve that dream. If these people cannot achieve their dream, who can say that they are not successful.
success means being contented on what you have and happy.
Very good condition, interesting information to better use as a reference axis, then actually read through from beginning to end
Nikita – I have to disagree with that. Being contented with what you have, even though will make you happier, is not a drive at all. Personally, in order for us to be success at something, there must be something (aim or target) first.
However, being happy is a very good definition of success.
Nang Bayoe – Thank you for reading. I’m interested in your choosing the word “Reference Axis”.
I would tend to say that everyone has a different definition of success for each aspect of their life. In addition, I tend to believe that a definition of success may be fluid.
The way you define success in one aspect of your life, may completely change as your life changes. If you were to succeed at a goal that was fairly easily obtained, and you set a new goal with higher expectations, that would (at least to me) change your definition of success.
I know I’m late coming into the discussion, sorry for that. =)