Success… What is it?

So many people out there want to someday be successful. They are willing to do almost anything it takes to achieve success. Some people are already extremely successful. They eat, drink, and sleep success. Unfortunately, success isn’t tangible; it’s not something you can locate with any of your five senses.

Also, each person has their own opinion of what success is. Some people define success by the amount of money they have in their bank account. Others define success by how much they have accomplished in their lives. Success is a very ambiguous term and has a very different meaning to some very different people. Ralph Emerson declares that success is “to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived” while Booker T. Washington has this to say about the subject:

“Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.”

Dictionary.com defines success in 4 main ways:

1. the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors.
2. the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like.
3. a successful performance or achievement
4. a person or thing that is successful

I align my definition most closely with the first definition. I feel that you may make numerous attempts at success, and there will definitely be failures. However, even in a “failure”, you can learn, grow, and advance. Your failures can now be a part of the favorable attempt that you call “Success”. So did you ever really fail in the first place?

http://www.quotegarden.com/success.html
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/success