An attempt to understand success
During my internship (while I was doing M.B.A) we had a quick tea-time chat on it which was certainly not ‘success’ful as we had to cut the conversation mid-way (I was sincere to my work that time too). But reading Christina’s thought provoking post, I have got the opportunity to take it further. Of course I do not aim to conclude this subjective matter, I am just putting my thoughts here.
If Christina doesn’t mind, I found her thoughts on success contradictory at places. On one hand – success is compared with the economics’ law of ‘diminishing marginal utility’ which means more u have something the lesser u want it, if I m not wrong. Contradicting it is her opinion on success as a journey and not a one time affair. If I am successful today, I would definitely want to achieve success, greater one, in my future endeavors. Success makes you confident, aspirant, and greedy for success and so do people’s expectations from you go up. Retaining a successful position is much more difficult than achieving it.
Coming back to where we had stopped some 20 months back, what does success mean to people? An instant answer would be achieving what one wants defines success. It could be money, high rank position at workplace, captainship of the college sports team, achieving best student award, winning the cookery contest, or simply earning a living…. or anything u value. I reiterate, anything u value. To me success is achieving what I value (materialistic or non-materialistic). I liked the comments posted by Deepti and Ullas, it relates to what I am trying to put forth.
Most of us are not clear on what we want from life. Money and power have been supposedly synonymous to success since ages. There will hardly be anyone in this racing world who see our father – Gandhi Bapu as a role model. We are just following the herd, running blindly after materialistic gains to show off our ‘success’. Is that because we have realized that the world bows down to the ‘successful’ people no matter what they do and how they have achieved the grandeur. If we think the poor are unsuccessful, we are wrong. They are equally successful – they tend their family as we do, they enjoy their festivals as we do, they contribute to the society and the nation as we do. The point here is how you take what you have. Satisfaction is also an important key to an individual’s success. See your world with your eyes and not with others’, and you will realize you have got much more than what the ‘successful’ has.
If Christina doesn’t mind, I found her thoughts on success contradictory at places. On one hand – success is compared with the economics’ law of ‘diminishing marginal utility’ which means more u have something the lesser u want it, if I m not wrong. Contradicting it is her opinion on success as a journey and not a one time affair. If I am successful today, I would definitely want to achieve success, greater one, in my future endeavors. Success makes you confident, aspirant, and greedy for success and so do people’s expectations from you go up. Retaining a successful position is much more difficult than achieving it.
Coming back to where we had stopped some 20 months back, what does success mean to people? An instant answer would be achieving what one wants defines success. It could be money, high rank position at workplace, captainship of the college sports team, achieving best student award, winning the cookery contest, or simply earning a living…. or anything u value. I reiterate, anything u value. To me success is achieving what I value (materialistic or non-materialistic). I liked the comments posted by Deepti and Ullas, it relates to what I am trying to put forth.
Most of us are not clear on what we want from life. Money and power have been supposedly synonymous to success since ages. There will hardly be anyone in this racing world who see our father – Gandhi Bapu as a role model. We are just following the herd, running blindly after materialistic gains to show off our ‘success’. Is that because we have realized that the world bows down to the ‘successful’ people no matter what they do and how they have achieved the grandeur. If we think the poor are unsuccessful, we are wrong. They are equally successful – they tend their family as we do, they enjoy their festivals as we do, they contribute to the society and the nation as we do. The point here is how you take what you have. Satisfaction is also an important key to an individual’s success. See your world with your eyes and not with others’, and you will realize you have got much more than what the ‘successful’ has.
Labels: Achievement, Satisfaction, Success
posted by Siddhi @ 5:13 AM
3 Comments:
At February 1, 2008 5:33 AM ,
Maloncho said...
Great....Success is achieved when we r best at what we were good at....n it could be anything whether its in terms of economic aspects, social aspects & even personal life....So guys its a simple funda just keep on improving yourself n u wd be successful.
At February 1, 2008 5:37 AM ,
Danny said...
Every individual has different parameters for success but I agree that every person is successful in some way or the other! The blog suggests that you have deeply thought on this topic. Hats Off! to your success criterias.
At February 5, 2008 2:52 AM ,
Blosoom said...
@ Siddhi,
Well written viewpoint.
However, I wanted to clarify about what I had written and what you found contradictory. What I feel is that you have somewhere misunderstood my viewpoint... Actually we are both beating around the same bush...
When I compared success (or more precisely the materialistic fulfillments) as something having diminishing value, I am trying to bring out the greater essence of success. Its something like this...once I achieve something or once I have succeeded in getting what I wanted, I do not stop there. I try to move still ahead and try achieving something of greater value that the earlier accomplished success/achievement. So my past achievement though valuable begins to diminish as time passes by. I cannot live by my one time success. And we all aim to become better n better each day...isnt it
One example: Why do corporate gurus/entrepreneurs/leaders dont stop after a particular achievement...if they were satisfied with that much of success, we would not have had so many enterprising and successful people and developement around... This goes to say that they are aiming for greater level of success and often with something of greater/bigger value than the earlier/past successes. The past success has provided an inspiration for something more valuable. And ceases to remain of the ultimate value. I hope I am clear to this explanation.
A second point I made is that success is an ongoing process. So now it definitely correlates to the above comparison. This means once I have experienced a sense of self-fulfillment with one thing...I do not stick to it. It will not hold the same value once I start targetting other areas of success.
Gloating about one time achievement hampers my growth. I have to create a higher value day by day (not only materialistically but spiritually as well)..and keep measuring myself and my progress. This makes success a continuous process.
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