What is success? What success means to you?

So, what does success really mean? It stands for different things for different people. There is no and can be no fixed definition.

Laura Nash & Howard H. Stevenson, in their article titled ‘Success that lasts’ in Harvard Business Review, have a line which sums it up – “Recognizing how important it is for each person to understand and develop his or her unique definition of success over time, we chose not to report on one or two well-known examples of success as the perfect model to follow.”

Warren Buffett says: As long as you have people who you love and care about around you, you are successful. And rightly so, because when the end comes, that’s all one wants, rest everything will not matter, howsoever much you have that in abundance.

But coming to a more transactional level in life, success can also be described, in my opinion, as: knowing - where you want to be & what you want to do? And giving all that you have got, towards that vision or destination or that journey. If you are doing that, you are already successful, because you are in that select group of people who are clear in their vision/mind & focused on their effort.

Success, for such people should not be tied to outcome. These people, even if they do not get a favorable outcome, their focused journey will open a hundred more doors. Eventually they will get what they set out for, may be sometimes in a different shape & form, time & place, but they will get it, because they are relentless in their pursuit.

By applying logical reasoning, it can also be deducted that people who did not get what they wanted, in any shape and form, in spite of all their efforts. A small percentage of such people will certainly fall into the category of those who did not have clarity and hence their effort lacked focus. But I still won’t call that a failure. I am nobody to give such a certificate. No one can pass such a judgement on anyone else, unless someone explicitly calls upon another person to make such an assessment.

There is also, undoubtedly, a category of people who do not and will not have a clearly defined list of goals for life, do not have a specific destination to arrive at, do not have a list of check boxes to be accomplished; and that is alright. They take life a as journey and live it, as it unfolds. May be, that’s their philosophy of life. Whatever the case may be, as long as they are happy, content, and live a pleasant life, that is all what matters.

Talking about success, it is also important to understand that there are no failures when it comes to life, there are only experiences. Delve deeper and you will realize - life is nothing but a set of experiences (pleasant & unpleasant) & outcomes (favorable & unfavorable).

Life, eventually, is a journey. If you want something as part of that journey, be clear about it. Avoid regrets. But either way, enjoy the journey and make it a pleasant experience for yourself and others around you. No one likes a grumpy co-passenger!