What Is Success?

Albert Einstein once said,"Try not to become a man of success.  Rather become a man of value."

I read this yesterday on GoodReads, and I was, frankly, quite mystified and fascinated.

The title of this post is itself a question I am posing to you, the reader--because I have no clue whatsoever about the answer.  This question raises a whole lot of other questions:

Is it that being successful and standing for what you believe in are mutually exclusive?

Is success no longer based on values?  Have all humans resorted to unjust, unfair means to come out on top of the ladder?  (We all know they--we--haven't.  It's quite obvious.)

Does becoming successful automatically mean that we no longer believe in our core selves, and what they might stand for?

How can we achieve success in our daily lives, and what does it mean to do that?

Are successful people really as ruthless as we make them out to be?  (Do we?  That's another question.)


What is success?

Is it making a whole lot of money, then retiring a tycoon, and then having the whole world remember you....and then becoming only a little less than obsolete after a few centuries?  

Is it leaving a legacy behind?  A stack of novels you wrote that reaches up to the ceiling and out the roof?
The wisdom you have accumulated throughout your years on this earth, penned down in a small diary, or recorded in a CD that you might pass on to your children?

Is it motivating other people to become successful, and "discover their greatness"?  (Oh, and we use the word a lot of the time, but what is "greatness", really?)

Is it being happy with your life, no matter what's in it?  ("Well, even if I did mess up this project of colouring in Tweety the Bird in my Big Colouring Book, that doesn't mean I can't be happy!")

Is success being able to take a walk at night and look at the stars and see the beauty around you?

Is success being able to stand up for what you believe in, and then explain it if someone doesn't understand what you stand for?

Is success being able to give and take respect wherever you go?  (I didn't want to put it like that, but I guess you know what I mean.)



Or does success mean something different for each one of us?

If it does....


....Then why are we still stuck trying to find a universal definition for it?

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