The definition of success
98Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer
There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all. - Peter Drucker
The secret of success is constancy to purpose. - Benjamin Disraeli
It might seem silly for a 20-year-old to define what success is, but I can explain what in life I am working toward.
Overall, I believe that you know you have achieved success when you reach the end of your life and you have no regrets, no qualms or grudges. In psychology they refer to this as "ego integrity." It's probably safe to say that all people work towards this sort of end.
This doesn't mean that you can't make mistakes in your life. Basically, however, you should have done enough over your lifetime to be at peace with yourself in the end.
This can mean a number of different things depending on the person. To some it means founding a multi-million dollar business, for others it could be saving an old tree for other generations to see. It could be making something for others down the line or for yourself alone.
For me success is the former; I want to do something that will last. I want to succeed in being happy and it would make me happy to have a legacy. Personally I find happiness in purpose, so I consider that success for me is achieving what I've set out to do.
Is it that success means doing what makes you happy or that you're happy when you're successful? I'm leaning toward the first response.
I wonder if one's idea of success changes if they never really meet their goals.
I'm not really sure why I'm making this hub, but I think it's interesting to analyze these things, expecially early in life when my life has hardly even really started.
Stephen Downes listed the top 10 things that render one successful:
- How to predict consequences
- How to read
- How to distinguish truth from fiction
- How to empathize
- How to be creative
- How to communicate clearly
- How to learn
- How to stay healthy
- How to value yourself
- How to live meaningfully
Some of these I can see businesspeople saying to themselves... communicate clearly, be creative. Generally these tips seem to encourage individuality, which is positive; being yourself is the key to being happy, I believe.
I would like to know what others consider success is in life. Maybe it will help round out my own ideas, but I always like to see what others think.
Additional links
- Success Quotes | Success Quotations | Success Sayings | Wisdom Quotes
Success quotes - part of a larger collection of Wisdom Quotes to challenge and inspire. Find Success quotes and links to quotations on other topics. - How To Be Successful: Stephen Downes' Top Ten Rules
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What is your idea of success?
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Interesting hub. I'm currently reading Happier by Tal Ben-SHahar, and Oultiers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell. Both agree that success takes a lot of work, as much as 10,000 hours to become truly expert in something. But Ben-Shahar argues that happiness is not based on success so much as on a variety of things in your life, not the least of which is the choice to be happy.
He cites evidence that people think a specific success will make them happy, and it does, sometimes, for a while, but then they revert to the way they were before, or even get disappointed because they can't sustain the success high.
In Stumbling Into Happiness, Gilbert cites evidence that people who win the lotto are not much happier 6 months later than they were before winning. And more shocking, he says that people who become paralysed are not much less happy 6 months after the event than they were before.
I don't know what to make of it all, but I do think it is important to choose to be happy and choose to succeed, but not make the former dependent on the latter.
These are things we should definitely think about. I know that in this stage in my life (post-grad, jobless, single, and enduring wintertime in Chicago, haha), its easy to waste too much time doing meaningless things. But I always feel pretty worthless at the end of the day when I realize I haven't done anything worthwhile.
To me, success is doing something that helps other people. I too want a legacy and would love never to waste another day in my life. I owe it to the terminally ill, ya know?
Thank you for your responses to this Hub. Bruce, that book sounds fascinating, and correlates well with my Hub! And ForReal, thanks for taking a large view of things and, well, being real :)
My Grandmother told my dad (after another business failure) "A man who has the love and respect of family & friends is a success. Not how much money he has."
Nice change in perspective. As the economic times change we'll probably rediscover some of the truths you've outline here.
I agree with shahadahmedali's comment.
No, but seriously, it's so appealing to hear the secret of success boiled down to one thing, because there are obviously so many different factors at work.
I feel I'm most successful at this point in my life more than any other. I am more appreciative than I have been in the past. So maybe that has something to do with it?
:)
:)
Nice hub, very insightful. =)
Dear glassvisage, Thanks for this great Hub explaining what is true success!
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Success has a lot to do with our values. . . the things we hold dear in our lives, like God, family, etc. If our goals are aligned with our values we can easily say we are successful once we meet our goals.
interesting topic glassvisage.
glassvisage, I always enjoy reading things like quotes about success. I don't think you have to wait until the end of your life to know if you have been a success. After thinking for a minute about whether I would consider myself a success or not, I have to say that I just kind of do, and that's for one reason only - that I know, in my heart, I have never "sold my soul".
Career success is usually pretty obvious, and so is financial success. Being "generally successful" in a lot of different endeavors is also usually fairly plain to see. To me, though, there is plenty of room at the top, as well as at the bottom, in most endeavors. To me, that question of whether we have ever sold our soul is the thing that can make a person, at least in his heart, feel as if he is successful at living.
glassvisage - great quotes! No lie, today on my "Getting in Touch with Your Inner Bitch" calendar, the quote is "Success is not the key to happiness, happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful." - Albert Schweitzer. What a coincidence that I fell upon this article today, the same day this quote popped up in my calendar!
And it doesn not matter that you are in your twenties and giving advice. I'm 23 and when I read the title of your blog before clicking on it I said to myself, "Happiness, of course!"
Awesome! Thanks everyone! Ashley, yes, Schweitzer has some great quotes! Thanks for stopping by!
This is great. I really appreciate the viewpoint, it helped me focus a little more on being happy.
success leads to happiness
Great hub. Success is relative to each of us. We just need to learn to focus on what makes us happy and exclude the pressures of success normality from the outside!
Great hub .....
Everything you wrote is very much to reality .....
this very intersting on how you !
Hi Glassvisage
Great hub! It gave me something to ponder. I agree with the definition of success being "ego integrity." I think success can be defined as this - When the end of the day comes, if you can know you tried to help someone else and realize your mistakes and try to repent, change, and try harder tomorrow that is the bottom line. God bless.
A winner never quits and a quitter never wins
That was a good piece success is a state of mind I think...failure coming only when you give up.
Everyone wants to taste success and happiness. This blog is extremely useful for the attaining success. Thanks for sharing it. Very informative and nice hub.
Very good Hub! I enjoyed reading it! I always thought the quote was Success is Failure turned inside out? Oh well, what ever works :)
Success and happiness are two sides of the same coin. I enjoyed reading your hub very much and I am impressed at your insights at such a young age!
Something which I just read:
Success is speaking words of praise
In cheering other people's ways,
In doing just the best you can
In every task and every plan.
It's silence when your speech would hurt,
Politeness when your neighbor's curt.
It's deafness when the scandal flows
And sympathy with other's woes.
It's loyalty when duty calls;
It's courage when disaster falls;
It's patience when the hours are long;
It's found in laughter and in song.
It's in the silent time of prayer,
In happiness and in despair.
In all of life and nothing less,
We find the thing we call success.
-Doris M. Hugh
Thank you everyone! BK, that poem is perfect... I always reach success when I am able to refrain, persist, and feel proud for doing something that not everyone else can.
I had a good time reading your blog. See u
WHAT I MEAN OF SUCCESS IS A JOURNEY,WHICH NEVER ENDS IN YOUR LIFE TILL DEATH.AND SOME TIME SUCCES IS NAME OF SATISFACTION, WHICH YOU GETS AT DIIFFERENT TIME IN YOUR LIFE, AT DIFFERENT OCCASSION.
I love the Albert Schweitzer quote you have listed at the very top of the hub. They are words that I live by everyday. What is the point of living if it is just to try and succeed? Succeed by whose standards? Succeed based on the number of your pay cheque? Those people will never be happy. Find your passion and live for it... everything else will work out for you.
Those are great quotes up there! Thanks for your input as well.
Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. - perfect quote. great article
Happy Quotes says:
18 months ago
Failure is Success too as you can learn from it to be Success.