Success

October 20, 2009

 

I was inspired by a late-night show my sister and I watched last Sunday night. I forgot the documentary’s title or even channel (maybe it was Channel 2), but that’s irrelevant. What’s important are the “pearls of knowledge” it shared with the few viewers who stayed up late.

 

Success is not measured by wealth, prestige or other achievements. Success is when we feel happy with what we are doing, when we reach our dreams, and when we make other people happy too as a result. The more people we make happy, the more lives we improve, and the happier we are with the results, the more successful we become.

 

It isn’t easy to measure, but the beauty of it is that it makes success achievable by every person. Moreover, success becomes something that multiplies when shared, never diminished. A successful person also makes other people succeed in their lives.

 

Success is a state of mind turned reality.

 

I don’t think I’m successful; I haven’t reached my dreams yet and haven’t even made a dent in the lives of the people I want to help. But, in fairness to me, I am happy with what I am doing and with the path I have chosen. It’s not a yellow brick road to greenbacks; it is the road less traveled by. I did not chose this because I consider poverty as a virtue (if I were poor I wouldn’t have much choice in the first place). It is simply because I don’t think I could achieve anything when I feel bad with what I am doing. When you feel bad with what you are doing, when you think that everything is just about surviving this or that, your human potentials are reduced, and you’ll realize that what you have done is just to exist, not live, as what human beings are supposed to do. I would rather die than merely exist.

 

Many people in our country (and the world) merely exist, living miserable lives brought by the lack of choices and opportunities. Most of them die without even pondering about success, their lives circumscribed by the daily imperatives of hungry stomachs, weary muscles, itching skin and gloomy eyes. As people with choices, do we choose to keep the freedom to choose to ourselves or, by the best of our capabilities, share it with others?

 

The first question to the paths to success is to choose which path to follow. The second is to ask who will join us towards our unreachable destination. And the third is how willing are we to go on.