Success is defined as a favorable or
prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors; or the achievement of
something desired, planned or attempted; accomplishment of an aim or purpose.
It is also defined as the attainment of wealth, position, honor or the like.
The entire gambit of innovation, growth, prosperity and personal happiness
revolves around this seven letter noun called “Success”. To attain success and
become successful is the inner desire of every human being on the planet. It is
the driving force for achieving something of importance in life. With success
comes the confidence and courage to take risk for further attempts. It lifts
one’s moral and self confidence. It also brings social recognition, name, fame,
glory, sense of satisfaction and increases the power of self determination.
On the flip side, success may also bring
vanity, egotism, narcissism, pride and arrogance. In some cases the effect of
success may reach to the point of self centeredness, selfishness, ruthlessness,
gluttony, anger, antagonism, antipathy, aversion and abhorrence towards fellow
human beings. Sometimes undeserving success may lead to blindness towards seeing the truth or reality. It
may change the way a normal person looks at a situation or circumstance.
Sometime people may link their success to their skills and endeavor while
completely ignoring the other surrounding factors which may have helped them
become successful. Undeserving success may also lead to the comprising of
ethical and moral values.
Albert Einstein has said - "Strive
not be a success but rather to be of value". Therefore I have decided
to discuss this abstract topic with all of you while analyzing what is the true
meaning of success and how success is defined from one’s perspective. Can we
consider success without value as success? If not, then what are those values
which determine the quality of success? Does the meaning of success vary from
person to person? If yes! Then what are those variances? What are its attributes
and how it affects personal or social life? Does success mean achieving
everything in one's life or it is one of the means to survive in the world? How
many types of successes can be classified and how do they provide a sense of
accomplishment? Can success obtained through foul means be considered as
success? If not then what is the criteria for determining success or genuine
successes? Is one type of success greater or lesser than other types of
successes? If not, then which success is of the highest value and others not? What
factors leads in getting the successes? What are the parameters of determining
these successes? Etc.
Therefore the nature and importance of
success varies depending upon the purposes and it also varies from person to
person. Achieving certain things in one’s life can be matters of great importance
but may be irrelevant from other’s point of view. Similarly having a promotion
or an increment in the job or getting a huge order in business or being awarded
for an achievement may be a great success from one’s angle but may look normal by others. Thus, the parameter for determining success differs depending upon its
nature and circumstances. The parameter for recognizing a success also depends
upon ones personality, position and social status. A small effort by socially
recognized people becomes a headline whereas a highly qualified and
knowledgeable person may face obscurity.
Furthermore, the prosperous termination
of attempts, or endeavors or achievements of something desired, planned or
attempted may translate into a success in case of personal achievements but on
social levels success needs to be acknowledged by someone else other than the
person trying to achieve it. On a social level success is determined by taking
into consideration the collective efforts put in by an average number of people
for the same goal or purpose. Therefore in that case we may presume that success
without acknowledgement is no success. It is incomplete in its essence socially
while providing a sense of temporary happiness and self pride. Success is a
parameter by which a person’s ability or performance is acknowledged or its
resulting potential effects on one’s personal or social or professional life is
measured or judged by society.
Since success and achievement of an aim
or purpose triggers self satisfaction and happiness, hence success and
happiness are the resulting components of each other. But there may be examples
contrary to this. Sometime people get success in their lives but it is not
acknowledged by their employer or their family or society, hence people feel
sadness even after accomplishing a task or purpose of importance. One can go
all alone to the North Pole and come back but if there is no witness and there
is nobody to acknowledge this fact then the efforts will remain a personal achievement
and not a success from the social point of view. Hence, success without acknowledgement
may only be a personal effort.
Now can we consider success without
‘value’ as success? This question was
raised by the world famous scientist Albert Einstein; hence we must answer why
he discouraged us to be successful over having some values in life.
The word ‘value’ can be described as
moral value, ethical value, personal value or social value. These values make
the character of a person which leads to qualitative contribution towards personal
or family or social lives. These values allow a person to make an analytical
approach to a situation with positive and constructive mindset. These values
give rise to judicious evaluation of a situation even if the situation is not
in one’s favor. These values also tantamount to adjustment and sacrifice and
enlarges a person’s personality several fold. A sense of magnanimity and
benevolence gets induced in one’s thinking and approach. Even after achieving
great success, people become more humble, courteous and generous in their
approach. Therefore, if a person becomes successful from the literal sense but
he or she has not been able to inculcate some values in their personality and
action then those successes are useless. Therefore, a success without value may
be termed as immoral success or in management terms NVA or Non Value Added Activities.
Moving forward to my next question-“Does
the meaning of success vary from person to person”? If yes, then what are those variances? What
are its attributes and how it affects personal or social lives?
Again if we take the literal meaning of
success as defined in a dictionary- “prosperous termination of attempts or
endeavors” then we find that any attempt which leads to some kind of gain is a
success even if the gain is negligible from others point of view. For example
when a beggar is hungry and looking forward to have some kind of food, and at
the end of the day if the beggar is able to grab a loaf of bread, it can be
considered as a prosperous termination of his or her attempts as the beggar is
richer by a loaf. On the other hand if a stock broker is able to buy a large
quantity of shares at the lowest value, then that is a success for him. Getting
bread at the end of day by a beggar is a great success for him but it may not
be considered as a success by the stockbroker in comparison to his gain but
both of them had their fare share of success.
Therefore, the end result of an endeavor
which triggers the feeling of success varies from person to person. These
variances can be classified as follows:
- Success for Survival
As per the UNO’s Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) 2012 World Hungry and Poverty Facts and Statistics, in 2010
about 1 billion people or 14% of the entire estimated population of the world is
malnourished. It means that they do not have enough food for survival or they
are hungry. In this case grabbing a bag of rice at the time of distribution by
aid agencies is a great success for them.
- Success for Achievement
This is very common in our lives when we
accomplish an aim or purpose such as getting a degree, promotion, winning an
elective post, employment, large contracts, prize, award, trophies or becoming
recognized in the society for achieving something of utmost value or importance.
- Success out of Compulsion
In order to earn our livelihood we all
have to work and for that we have to commute in spite of the traffic nightmare,
or pick up our children from school, or successfully travelling from one place
to another in spite of the airlines strike or reaching a destination in the
midst of closure of roads due to some kind of demonstration or protest, or
marrying or educating our children or accomplishing a task at work place are
the best examples of having a sense of success by achieving our aim or purpose
out of compulsion.
- Success for Satisfaction
In order to satisfy our mental, physical
or emotional desire to have something or to do something of extra-ordinary in
nature or to help the family or society, we keep doing certain activities of
which the end results provide us a sense of accomplishment or success in
achieving the goal, aim or purpose. This gives us a sense of satisfaction while
becoming successful in our purpose.
My next sets of questions are - Does success mean achieving everything in one's life or is it one of the means to survive in the world? How many types of successes can be classified and how they provide a sense of accomplishment? Success obtained through foul means can be considered as success or not? If not then what are the criteria for determining successes or genuine successes? Is one type of success greater or lesser than other types of successes? If not then which success is of the highest value and others not?
Before answering the first question, I
will like to deliberate upon types of successes which can be the following:
- Material Success:
If one is able to acquire lands,
buildings, jewelry or other materials of value with his or her effort or by way
of inheritance or gift or by any other means then this type of success may fall
under this category.
- Financial Success:
Acquiring wealth by way of monetary gain
is an important and integral part of judging a person to be financially
successful. Again it is a matter of debate to discuss the means of acquiring wealth in order to become financially
successful.
- Personal Success:
Personal success can be measured from
the point of physical or mental satisfaction one gets by doing certain
activities which gives a sense of achievement.
- Social Success:
Any achievements by which a person gets
recognized in the society, gains name, fame and fortune, earns respect power
and position, gets the ability to control or influence a large number of people
falls under this category.
- Religious Success:
Karl Marx a German sociologist of early
nineteenth century has said that “the
religion is the opium of the people”, hence I will not like to dwell upon
this in detail. The acknowledgement of religious success depends upon the
percentage of people under the influence of the ‘opium’ or in other words conditioning
of their mind.
- Spiritual Success:
Under this category, a person realizes
the truth of life and one’s purpose of existence in this world. This makes the
person humble and ordinary human ills like ego, jealousy, anger and hatred are
gone and one’s thought process becomes one with the God. However this success
is very personal in nature and hard to find out in the society as spiritually
successful people will never go for drum beating or look for any types of endorsement,
acknowledgement or advertisement.
Now I would like to digress a bit and
would like to quote another proverb which says –“Nothing succeeds like a success”. In a common scenario people
generally measure success with the gain of material or financial wealth, power
and position. This proverb blatantly ignores the ‘means’ of obtaining those
successes. There are several countries
in the world where people have amassed enormous wealth, power or position by way of corrupt practices. Can we consider those successes as successes? These
successes obtained through immoral or illegal ways may be temporal in nature and
may also have negative fallouts in future. Bernie Medoff of USA is the best
example of obtaining success through illegal means. At one time people were
dazzled with his financial success running into billions of dollars and
now he is behind the bar.
Therefore as per me “unqualified or undeserving success is no
success at all”. These successes make people blind to see reality and they
may also become arrogant, rude, and full with vanity. Here I would like to
quote a poem of Abdul Rahim Khan-e-Khana (or Rahim) –
“Jo Rahim Ochho Badhe, To Ati Hee
Itraay, Pyade Se Pharji Bhayo, Tedho- Tedho
Jaay”.
Its translation in English is – “those
who were very low in their mental or spiritual background, if they suddenly
gain power or position or acquire wealth then their behavior changes and they
become full with vanity which is visible in their action and behavior”.
Sir Winston Churchill, the former prime
minister of UK has added another dimension of success by quoting “Success is not final, failure is not fatal;
it is the courage to continue that counts”. It means that success alone is
not sufficient and it is one’s determination, focus on goals and ability to
continue or overcome all odds that matter. I am sure while quoting the word
courage he must not have meant negative courage of stealing wealth or holding
power or position by deception.
The great king of Macedon (323 BC) – ‘Alexander
the Great’ was the most successful and courageous warrior of his time. He
conquered many countries and accumulated enormous wealth but at the time of his
death he pronounced three wishes to be fulfilled. His first wish was to have
his physician bring his coffin home alone; second wish was to scatter gold,
silver and gems from his treasury along the path when his coffin is being
shipped to the tomb; and the third and final wish was to put his hands outside
the coffin.
Upon asking the reason he replied “I
want everyone to understand the three lessons I have learned. To let my
physician carry my coffin alone is to let people realize that a physician
cannot really cure people’s illness. Especially when they face death, the
physicians are powerless. I hope people will learn to treasure their lives. My
second wish is to tell people not to be like me in pursuing wealth. I spent my
whole life pursuing wealth, but I was wasting my time most of the time. My
third wish to let people understand that I came to this world in empty hands
and I will leave this world also in empty hands.”
Now if we analyze the message Alexander
the Great gave to the world we find that material success may be important but
it is not everything and in the race of obtaining them one remains devoid of real
success which is the knowledge of knowing oneself while creating inner peace
and harmony. In other words success is important in our lives in order to enjoy
material, financial, or social recognition as long as it is earned in a
balanced way and does not affect other aspects of our lives. If these successes
results in sorrow or pain or come at the cost of our personal life, married
life, family life, social life and spiritual life and if they create an
imbalance between our physical, mental or emotional set-up, then these successes
cannot be considered as real success. In such cases, an element of failure is also
attached with success.
Hence success is important but the
quality of success is more important than success itself. Real success is
success if one can create a balance between three states of being – mental,
physical and spiritual and remain humble, modest, generous, giving, kind, truthful,
tolerant, and down to earth even in the situation of getting material,
financial, personal or social successes by truthful means while progressing
towards the path leading to spiritual success.
I will look forward for your valuable
comments for the enlightenment of readers of this blog.
Suman Saran
Sinha
Certified Management Consultant and
a pursuer of logical quest
