What is Success?
Monica Davis

"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing." Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865) "It is possible to fail in many ways...while to succeed is possible only in one way." Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC) "The person who makes a success of living is the one who see his goal steadily and aims for it unswervingly. That is dedication." Cecil B. DeMille (1881 - 1959) Success has been pondered upon for centuries in the past and for centuries to come. From BC to AD there is still a search for a definition to the word success. How do you measure success? Can you physically lay it out and determine its length with a ruler? Can you pour it in a beaker and mark off a point of volume? Can you put on a scale and give a weight? The problem with figuring out who is really successful is determining what factors it should mostly be based on.
Success is such an abstract word that there is some difficulty in trying to explain the meaning of it. Seemingly, a word like success can be defined by explaining what it is as well as what it is not. To be successful you need to have an idea of what the word means. For some civilizations it is how long you are remembered and for others it is how much you have in the bank.
Success can be described in many different ways which make it confusing to determine who is successful or not. Often people think success is all about the money, while failing to look at other aspects of the word and the road it takes to get there. It can be interchanged with accomplished or prosperous, but neither of those words quite brings about the feeling as the actual word success. Success should be described by its background. The journey it took to get to that high position. Being successful can be looked at as having a couple of components contributing to the ladder you climb to be recognized as a successful person.
They say success is wealth and acclaim, but success is not based on money. Although, sometimes it does come with those things, it's not what it is always perceived to be. Universally wealth is a number one part of being successful, however having a million dollars does not make a person successful. Everyone would like to be rich, but it is not the defining factor of success. If a kid wants to become a drug lord and becomes it then he is successful. He’s rich isn’t he? So would he be considered a successful man?
To be successful there must first be a goal to reach. If a person does not want to be anything in life then he cannot be successful. There has to be something to work towards to realize the point of success. All effort has to be directed to this goal if it really means something. Sacrifices are made for this, risks are taken, and knowledge has to be gained in the process. When you are persistent in hard work, adrenaline can only be added to keep the progression going until the end of the road. When X marks the spot the arrow should be aimed directly at it, and when goal marks the spot, the aim should be directed at it. If you have no goal to set or reach, you cannot be successful. Think of this as playing soccer. If there is no goal to kick the ball into, what is the point of playing the game? There can be no winner. So, with no goal in the game of life there won’t be any success.
Determination and motivation are other aspects of being successful. If a person does not want something it will not be. Sometimes by chance or luck you might get your big break, but with no will to proceed the buck stops at some point. In order to be determined to reach a goal, something has to give you motivation. There has to be a force that drives the passion to make you strive for what you want. A self investment has to be made when no one else will contribute to the assertion to keep you going. Influences of your surroundings can make you want to be more than what you see. When you look at what a person has come from and where he is now, so much can be learned. A rich person is a rich person. But a rich person who does something, one that is determined and motivated to do something is a successful rich person.

A successful person is a leader that clearly has self-confidence and has their head held up high. It involves holding a position of prestige in whatever the field of work chosen. Soaring well beyond the normal standards and not settling for anything less than what you want to show what you are all about. Lazy people are not the ones at the top of their game; and if they some how get there, they won't stay there for long. Star quality makes a person successful. You are not expected to fall off the bandwagon as a leader. This has to be worked on. Leaders were once followers at some point, but successful followers become leaders.
Take Fantasia for example. She was given a big break by American Idol, but still it took so much determination to get as big as she has gotten. She loved to sing and set forth for her American Idol audition with a goal in mind. She made many sacrifices, learned the music business, and earned her respect. She had confidence in herself to know that she was something. She looked at the unfulfilled life she was living and was motivated to do something to get out of it. She pulled herself by her boot straps and made the first step, which led to the next step, which led her to success.
Everyone would like to be successful one day, but in order to be successful you have to have a clear vision of the idea and work towards it. Success is the determination to attain the telos of the goal set before you. Wealth can be attained through inheritance, but to be successful there has to be work involved. Determination has to be put into action. The ultimate strive of success should be happiness. It involves goals, motivation, determination, and leadership skills that lead to being happy. "He who met or accomplished gratifying results as an active player in the game we call life has given the word success meaning." Monica Davis