The Success Factor

While I was thinking of a subject to share with my fellow InfoITES, I thought of writing something which matters to each one of us – Success. Infact, this is something which all of us aim for in life. Of course a lot has been said and written on Success and its secrets; yet, I wanted to share my thoughts from a different facet.

I don’t know of a single person in today’s world who does not want to succeed. And when I say “success” or “succeed”, I don’t mean it in its general sense, i.e. doing well in exams while in school/college or excelling in the work sphere, having materialistic fulfilments, being always ahead in competition, becoming a leader, or owning number of enterprises and riches etc. They are certainly important aspects of success but not success in itself. On a deeper thought, they simply fade away as time changes for each of us. While we move in and out of school, college and various jobs, the definition of success also changes. It also changes with the kind of exposure we undergo in the different phases of our life. And just like any other product, success has its “diminishing marginal utility” i.e. the more I have of something, the lesser it is of value (use) to me.

The point I am trying to address here is that whether success is a one time affair or a continuous process? Many of us often think that when I achieve “xyz”, I would be called a successful man/woman. Of course there is no harm in thinking this way. However, becoming complacent in life or simply living by and for the one-time success is harmful and makes life as dull as it can get.

Happiness is closely knitted into success. A friend once asked me that if I had only one wish to be made for myself in life, what it would be. To that I instantly replied, “I would wish for Happiness”. By this one word, I was asking almost everything inclusive of success! You know how? Because when I say I want happiness, there is no room for sorrow. And even if there is sorrow, I want to tactfully confront the problems at hand that instigated sorrow to emerge out of it as a successful person. Here lies my happiness and a sense of self-fulfilment.

Since I am fascinated by human emotions and psychology, I tried correlating success with an interesting book that keeps me up these past few nights. The 10 million copy bestseller - “The Road Less Travelled” by Dr. M. Scott Peck is about human psychology and the factors that attribute to a higher level of self-understanding. This understanding of self is the only means to relate to others and experience a sense of self-fulfilment which I call ‘Success’. In the book, Dr. M Scott explicitly takes the reader to a deeper understanding of self and how one can grow mentally and spiritually. It is about the interior rather than the exterior that he talks about. The book brings out the fact that confronting and solving problems is a painful process which most of us attempt to avoid. And the very avoidance results in greater pain and inability to grow. And growth is definitely essential to keep us moving. This certainly goes to say that success cannot be a one time affair, but is a continuous growth process – growth of ourselves in every sphere of our lives.

The other day when our boss kept persuading us and insisted that we set some goals for ourselves, actually left me thinking about success and what it really means for each one of us. Different people have different goals and different strategies to get to it. For most of us, we have set our goals more specifically related to our careers and what we want to be/do in life. But again there is more to goal realization and fulfilment than just earning a living or tending a family.

On my way back home, I tried analysing this aspect from another perspective. Did you notice our boss that day and the enthusiasm he showed in driving all of us to something valuable and appealed to each of us in earnest that there is more to life than mere work? Why would he be so determined to push all of us? On a deeper thought, I felt that this is where he sees success for himself i.e. by motivating and inspiring at least someone in making life meaningful is a step to success for himself distinct from the general success. This is something beyond the usual meanings of success – self-fulfilment.

As quoted by Albert Schweitzer, “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful”. Being happy in itself is success rather than calling success something that has to be sought after!

So I want to ask each one of you, what success really means to you? Is earning money or excelling in career or having job security all that encompasses success for you? Or is there something bigger and better in life for you? Can we dare to think beyond the usual?

For us the young generation, life is yet to unfold its mystery. And each day is a learning experience and gives a different encounter of self-fulfilment. I can’t sit back and say, ‘okay I know enough or I have learnt enough’. Rather I would say, ‘What more can I do to upgrade myself?’ and ‘What would success mean to me tomorrow distinct from today?’

Blossom - Christina - 29.01.08