What Is Success?
Several weeks ago, I sent out an email to 25 of my friends asking their opinion on these two questions:
What is it about someone that makes you say they are successful?
What do you see?What does success mean to you?Here’s what five people had to say on success:
- “The best way to measure success if you are a parent is to look at your kids.”
- “Success to me is a person that remained faithful serving God to the end of his life.”
- “Success to me is a comfortable home, family and friends.”
- “When I see someone and think to myself, “they must be successful”, I look for signs of wealth, especially wealth greater than my own.”
- “The people I see as successful are the people who have the big jobs, the big houses, the big cars. The ones who don’t have to settle for the chicken instead of the filet mignon on the menu and don’t have to wait for the shoes they want to go on sale before they buy them.”
When I hear someone refer to someone else as being successful almost always they have the well paying job or practice, a
college degree, designer clothes, a big house, the stable family and a luxury car, or two. They have the appearance of being well-off financially, they are the proverbial Joneses.
When I think of someone as being successful, financial success is probably foremost in my mind because if you have money, you have options. This is why parents want their kids to do well in school, go to college and get a well paying job so they don’t have to struggle financially. Albeit financial success should not be the only success in life, I do believe it can be a foundation for building upon other successes.
What does success mean to me? Success means balanced achievements throughout my life that yield a variety of blessings. Success is not one thing in particular, but it’s winning by measured degrees of accomplishments. This is a hard question to tackle because there is no definite answer. I do believe a successful person lives a life of “desire, dedication and determination”*. A paragraph from the book As a Man Thinketh states that “Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves.” This means that success does not come easy, it’s hard work and it requires change! A successful person must make personal sacrifices in their life to achieve their goals.
Here are a few things I have noticed about successful people:
Successful people have a plan.
Successful people are not duped into quick fixes.
Successful people do not look for shortcuts.
Successful people realize their success “is the sum of small efforts totaled up to create critical mass.”*
Success starts with you! So now, I’m asking you: What is it about someone that makes you say they are successful and what does success mean to you?
Picture Credit of Success Blocks found here
*Heard on the Dave Ramsey Show
on January 24, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Permalink
excellent points especially the “quick fix”..looking for the instant formula just doesn’t work..
robert bourne’s last blog post..Awards Night and Other Stuff
on January 24, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Permalink
A friend of mine said that success is like beauty, in the eye of the beholder. It means different things to everyone, but I’m trying to give it a definition for some reason. I’m sure that when someone is referring to someone’s success, they are not talking about the smile on their face or how happy they look.
on January 24, 2008 at 8:34 pm
Permalink
I like your definition of success. After reading your post, I feel even more motivated to become successful.
on January 24, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Permalink
Success to me means being able to love who your are and what you have right now, yet still work on the vision of what you can acheive in the future.
on January 24, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Permalink
Thanks for your comment Lynn. Much success to you!
on January 25, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Permalink
We like John Wooden’s definition of success. “Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of the self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.” It comes from his great book “They Call Me Coach”. Great topic!
Bigg Success’s last blog post..TMI Is Not So Gr8
on January 27, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Permalink
I agree with you on the shortcuts and quick-fixes. Good ethics need to be at the foundation. That combined with what Bigg Success wrote, harmonizes quite well in my opinion. I have real admiration for people that develop the depth of themselves as real people. I really do. In a world with so much fear and protective shields, it is so refreshing to meet people that do not view vulnerability as a negative, and that are really interested in finding win/win solutions to problems. Now, that is a real art! I feel that it can be an important aspect to success.
on January 27, 2008 at 9:58 pm
Permalink
Wow Tami
Thanks for your thoughts! Much success to you!