About success

You remember in a previous post I mentioned about discussion topics at Skelliewag blog? This week Skellie’s query is about the definition of success. The question she poses is in three parts:
(i) What’s your definition of success?
(ii) Set out a concrete definition of success for your blog or website.
(iii) What are the goals you’re working towards?

I have already posted a comment on her blog, which I want to share with my readers here. I hope we can further the discussion independently here and try to come up with some interesting ideas.

I would wish to answer these three queries as they are posed. But before that, let me make it clear that I’m not a success guru, nor do I pretend to be one. I just want to bring my contribution from whatever I’ve learnt in order to further the discussion for mutual benefit.

The first question is of a general nature and I’ll adopt a general approach in an endeavour to come up with my definition of success. Then I’ll signal the goal I’m working towards and try to weave up a concrete definition of success for my blog. I’ll be somewhat elaborate so as to make the definition unfold itself as we move forward. Sorry for that. So let’s take each at a time.

(i) It’s a very interesting discussion where nobody would necessarily be right or wrong. If at the end of the day, we come up with a good synthesis of all the significant views of commenters, we might arrive at a workable definition.

We all talk about success; hardly do we understand what it really means. It’s a vague concept; and subjective. Different people attribute different meanings to success. If to some it might mean wealth or having a nice bungalow or villa or the latest BMW (which I’d refer to as material fulfillment), to others it could be good health, recognition, happiness, satisfaction, good family relationship or promotion in their job (which may be referred to as a state of mental fulfillment).

Whatever be it, success results from our attitude. Success doesn’t manifest itself as a result of accident or chance; it has to do with the choice we make to achieve that fulfillment which we call success. It is a feeling inside you, not outside, and is not an end in itself. If we want to achieve success we need to set realistic goals. We cannot say we’ve achieved what we wanted and we stop there, seal everything and say we’ve achieved success. For the day we do so, it’ll be our downfall – a good recipe for failure.

Success is not a destination; it’s a journey. Otherwise all the big successful multinationals wouldn’t have been where they are today; and they are constantly developing new ideas and techniques and looking for … success. So what is success? My view is that it’s an ongoing fulfillment process towards realizing something we value (not anything that we want to achieve). It’s a journey where we are continuously progressing from one goal to the next and the next.

I believe success is the extent to which you feel you have done something well and have achieved the set objective and want to go forward, higher and further. It’s a sense of fulfillment of having accomplished something we so cherished. And it doesn’t stop there. Once one goal is fulfilled we want to go another level up in quest of more success (fulfillment) and the journey continues. So to sum it all, my definition of success would be “a feeling of knowing you are progressively and consistently reaching the materialization of a goal (or goals) that you value much”.

(ii) Now let’s see what my goal is. I cherish to be able to progressively and consistently share reliable, authoritative and quality information, knowledge and experience on the internet highway. As you can see I have no material motives at the moment. May be as I go along this might become another goal and add up to my journey of success.

(iii) Having defined what I mean by success, and what goal I’m working towards, you should be able to decipher what success concretely means for my blog. Let me put it this way: “My concrete definition of success for my blog would be the extent of feeling of satisfaction and recognition I derive in the step-by-step realization of the goal I’ve set. It’s a passionate journey on which I’ve embarked myself and each day is a fulfillment in itself, a success for my blog.”

That’s it folks. Over to you for any comments. I want to learn more from you.

2 Comments

  1. CG Walters December 24, 2007
  2. Alfa King December 24, 2007

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