As a writer in
the field of motivation, it will be of moral injustice to say that I do not use
the dictionary when reading books by my fellow writers. But in this very
situation, you might need a dictionary for the sake of literal understanding of
terms and terminologies used in this book. But when it comes to understanding
the systematic of your life and identifying your future, you will need the
definition of only one word. A word that some are illusionary in defining it, a
word that I term as the deserted angel, a word that has held, is holding and
will continue to hold up high the destiny and future of those who understand
it, cherish it and practice its principles and laws that comes along with it.
We choose to give more and more positive attributes to this amazing word as far
as our level of knowledge and experience can take us; this word is no other
than SUCCESS.
Indeed, there are
a thousand and one definitions for success by different people, from different
forms of life with different level of knowledge and experience. Each and
everybody’s definition is undoubtedly affected by what they have thought, seen,
heard, learnt and experienced in the light of time. Moreover, this is a very
misleading, baseless and unprofessional way of analysis. Rather, issues like
this should be viewed in a wider and much more concrete perspective.
“Indeed, people
have their own way to the station, but there is always the safest.”
A research was conducted
by a group of writers and me on peoples understanding of success. The target
group was the elderly, thus between the ages of forty and sixty five who are
estimated to have achieved most of their goals and are deemed as successful
men. The team of four was divided into two; A and B with each half dealing with
the wealthy and the non-wealthy among the targeted group. After fourteen days
of interviews, critical thinking, discussions and analysis; reports were collated.
As far as the reports were concerned, ninety five percent of the targeted group
thought that success was all about wealth.
Furthermore, a
step made to know how they achieved their so called success, each of them
directly and indirectly referred to their own way as the best way to be
successful. For example the doctors, the lawyers and the scientists said it’s
all about academics, the sports man said develop your talent, the hustler said
hard work and the pastor said Gods time is the best. This is how selfish and
ethnocentric people can be. Each one of them suggested the way they became
wealthy as the best way to become successful in life. What people have failed
to realize is that not everyone can be that talented, sharp minded, hardworking,
academician, etc. the fact that you had what you wanted through A might mean that A is good but does not
necessarily mean that A is the best. This, my dear reader is the true and
natural selfish nature of man. We judge events and people by mere and baseless
elements of thought and behavior.
‘A person who
has gained financial and professional success from a poor start, may not only think
that he has made it, but may also have to make sure that everybody else knows
that he has made it.’
Swami Dayananda
Saraswati
People like
this have an extra self-created responsibility of trying as much as possible to
show to people and make them think that they have actually made it in life. We
begin to see them on talk shows and carrier guidance conferences where they try
to make people see what they have achieved and become- we have made it and we
are successful. That is why it is so difficult for children of such people to
bear the anxiety of being told how people studied under street lights on an
empty stomach and made to feel they are not trying hard enough. Not only their
families suffer this form of impunity, even inviting such a person for a
program becomes a headache. People like this will always expect to host in one
of the very good and conducive venues where the invited guests are also his or
her co-equals. They go the extra mile to find out how many people will consist
the audience and whether they will be given the opportunity to express
themselves or not.
They do all
this for only one reason; to make people see and feel how important and ‘successful’
they are and have become. But in actual sense, they live a life emptiness,
depression and lack of passion and purpose for who they are and what they do.
Don’t see them to be the victims here, because they are not. The one that is in
danger is not them but you. You see them and you think they have what you want,
you end up pursuing nothing but an imagery of what actually never existed. You
become like a little boy who sees a mirage and wants to swim in it. You might
as well follow their steps and become who they are. But tell me how boring success
will be without happiness, and I will tell how insignificant happiness can be
without success.
Moreover, people can’t even identify success
when they see one; in fact, success is not about the monitory aspect of one’s
life, but also the social, psychological and spiritual level one can find him
or herself as well as its relationship with society. Indeed,
“Seeking
success without its knowledge is like a blind man in search of his sight on the
desert.”
The problem of defining success is a very big
issue and as a matter of fact should be identified, analyzed, understood and
implement for the realization of our dreams.
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