What is Success?
What is success? That is the question I asked subscribers to “The Dreamer’s Guide” Motivation newsletter. These are some of the responses that I received:
Jonas Mulombwa
I had to take time to reply to your mail because your question is noteasy to answer. I had to take time and reflect.
Success means a lot of things to many people. Having money, owning propertyor excelling at an endeavour will mean success. This is a word pregnant withtoo much meaning.
I will define success as being able to do something so well that you arefilled with joy at its accomplishment. Its the inner drive to wanting to doso well. For a Doctor success is when in the administering of doctoral dutiesyou are filled with the joy that one life was made better because the youapplied yourself to the job so well. As a footballer its being able todeliver the goods when the chips are down.
Being able to weave your waythrough a maze of determined opposition defenders and deliver the goods.Success is triumph in the midst of opposition. How successful one is, isdetermined by the size of the opposition. More so being able to withstandthat opposition just adds to how much you could have mastered success.
So often we hear of success being attributed to people, say sportsmen, notbecause of their riches but because of how adept they have become in thespeciality. They will say how much success these people have found not inthe riches but in their domain.
Equating success to how much material things is flirting because onessuccess today will not be the success of tomorrow. That is what I callRelative Success. Just my way of differentiating it from the tangiblesuccess that time cant even get away from you. You and me know of a lot ofpeople who were successful on that score but have become unsuccessfulbecause they no longer have the material things that earned them the title.
How do I measure success then? I measure success by how muchaccomplishment(s) I get in doing my tasks. Its the inner fulfilment I get atdoing the right things right at the right time. I get partial success when Iaccomplish partially, and full success when I accomplish fully.
Money is anattendant to success. No one needs money to be successful. But successfulpeople attract money to themselves. They don't need to sweat to get money.Money will attend to success whenever, wherever success has been successful.
Jonas Mulombwa
Alfred Phiri
Dear Moses,
Thanks for giving me an opportunity to express my opinion in form of an answer to the question;
What is success?
Simply put. "Success is the completion of anything intended."
-An event that accomplishes its intended purpose.
-Let me call heads a success and tails a failure.
Even robbing a bank is a kind of success if that is what you wished to do. However, you probably did not intend to end in prison.
The above definition of success shines a light on failure and success. Make a plan and follow it and you will have succeeded. make a plan and do not follow it and you will have failed.
This gives a yard stick for judgment everyday of our lives. We can say at the end of the day "I have failed or I have succeeded.
This may seem very obvious but it is amazing that only about 85% of the human race end up doing what they intended.
Quite True!
Dr. Simuyemba, hope my contribution will find place in providing a certain percentage to the search for the answer to this interesting question.
Nelly Banda
Success to me means the many challenges that I have faced and managed to over come. In my opinion success is measured by the many battles that one fights and in the end overcomes them. Then I would call such a one as being successful.
Patricia
It means achieving your goals in life or your plans are fulfilled in life according to your expectations, then it means you are successful.
Reuben
Success to me is how good your relationship with GOD is. This is because he is the originator of everything good. Therefore being intimate with him is the most successful thing there can be.
What is success? I am sure the answers above give us some insight into the meaning of success. Thanks Jonas, Alfred, Reuben, Nelly, and Patricia for letting us know what success is to you. It is so amazing to note that what is success to one person is not necessarily success to another person.
What is success? Find out more on the pages below:
Return to Meaning of Success
What is Success? - Personal perspectives
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What is success for you? If you would like to add your thoughts to answer this question please drop me a line.
I would be happy to include your comments on the website so others can learn from you as to what is success.
Other Books By Dr. Moses:
Power Principles For Purposeful Living
"Powerful And Life-Changing Lessons On How To Maximise Your Potential And Live Your Dreams"
Power Principles for Fearless & Abundant Living
"How To Let Go of Fear and Embrace Prosperity"
In the POWER PRINCIPLES series of books, Dr. Moses Simuyemba, "Africa's Success Coach", shares his knowledge, experience and insight to help you in overcoming your personal challenges and limitations and inspire you towards the life you desire and deserve: a life of greater purpose, free of fear and full of abundance.