Over the past few weeks a question has been hunting me. What is success? Different people have different definition for success. To some, success is to achieve fame, popularity and enough money to spend for ten lifetimes. To others success mean to be among the top ten (or one) percent of people in their profession. Others still believe success to be a journey and not the destination. Mind you, here I am not talking about success in a particular venture or expedition, because in these cases success is absolute and not dependent on individual's perception. The success I am talking about is when people talk about individuals and quote them as successful. For an instance, Sachin Tendulkar is an successful batsman or Mukesh Ambani is a successful businessman or Steve Jobs is an successful entrepreneur.
I have some questions here: Who is the one to judge them as successful? How does the judge know they are successful? What is the absolute degree of their success? What are the parameters to measure success? Who decides the parameters and why?
I don't have answers to any of the questions asked above. But if i had, i would have known and regarded at least someone as successful which i don't. Who are we -the people, to judge and classify others as successful or failures. Success is only an relative term. Someone can be successful only in comparison to others and that too only in a few respects, not all and i am pretty sure about that. Yes, I am successful than you in sports but you are financially more successful than me. Or you are more successful than me academically but I can play better poker than you and hence I am more successful than you (but again only in playing poker or may be soccer).
According to me, people can not be successful, only their activities can result in success and failure and that too i believe in not always true and absolute. Relativity is always present. Some might call it my incompetence that i shun the concept of success, but I feel this is the reality. Successful people don't exist.
