When you hear the word 'success', what comes to mind? A multi-million-dollar businessman or businesswoman? A person who has ticked off all items off of their bucket-list?
I recently discovered the brilliant works of The New Yorker journalist and author Malcolm Gladwell. I came across a (kind of lengthy) quote from his book, Outliers: The Story of Success, that got me thinking:
To me, success is waking up every morning and being given the opportunity to work, to learn, interact with others, and move towards bettering yourself and your view of the world. Personal victories are fantastic, but I believe that it is important to understand what you want - not necessarily in life, but more so what you want in this particular point in time - and how other people have a direct impact on that. To explore human potential is one of the most interesting and exciting ideas, and to explore it with others is even more thrilling.
This might just be me, but I constantly think about how the people I'm surrounded by influence my decisions, my growth, and my thought processes. It's silly to think that others don't have an effect on your successes in life. Everyone is both a teacher and a student, and we interact with one another to learn. Sharing moments, experiences, ideas, and thoughts with others allows you to think more open-mindedly and challenge yourself. Different people have different strengths. It is through human interaction that we work together to achieve our successes in life.
Success can be anything from a job promotion, to making someone smile, to helping a friend with an assignment. Look at those examples - other people are directly involved in each scenario: someone must give a promotion in order for someone to receive a promotion. Someone must act a certain way to initiate a smile in another person. Someone must ask for help to receive help. The people around us are - more often than not - a catalyst to our own successes, whether we realise it or not.
Remember that success does not define you. You define success, and you are the one person who can determine exactly what it is and how successful you believe that you are in the life you live. There is no outline for how big or small a success can be, or how personal or widespread a success is - you are the judge of that. I urge you to challenge your ideas on what makes a 'successful person' and to think about who you consider to be successful people in your life and why. Know that one exam, one lost opportunity, or one mistake does not dictate your whole life. As long as you are happy with the person you are becoming and you can find meaning in what you do each and every day, you're already writing your success story.
-N
I recently discovered the brilliant works of The New Yorker journalist and author Malcolm Gladwell. I came across a (kind of lengthy) quote from his book, Outliers: The Story of Success, that got me thinking:
“Do you see the consequences of the way we have chosen to think about success? Because we so profoundly personalize success, we miss opportunities to lift others onto the top rung...We are too much in awe of those who succeed and far too dismissive of those who fail."It's a fickle concept. It seems that success is majorly viewed as a personal thing, and linked to an individual's accolades or achievements. A lot of us look at 'success' as such a scary and powerful word. Some of us are so frightened by the term that we accept mediocracy and are afraid to push boundaries and explore our capabilities. What is commonly viewed as the opposite of success is failure. I don't think this should be the case, though. I think that the opposite of success should be submissiveness; accepting normality and conforming to the way that everyone else thinks. I say this because 'failures' are merely unpolished gems - they are brilliant forms of learning, and they highlight a person's attempts at pushing boundaries, much like success.
To me, success is waking up every morning and being given the opportunity to work, to learn, interact with others, and move towards bettering yourself and your view of the world. Personal victories are fantastic, but I believe that it is important to understand what you want - not necessarily in life, but more so what you want in this particular point in time - and how other people have a direct impact on that. To explore human potential is one of the most interesting and exciting ideas, and to explore it with others is even more thrilling.
This might just be me, but I constantly think about how the people I'm surrounded by influence my decisions, my growth, and my thought processes. It's silly to think that others don't have an effect on your successes in life. Everyone is both a teacher and a student, and we interact with one another to learn. Sharing moments, experiences, ideas, and thoughts with others allows you to think more open-mindedly and challenge yourself. Different people have different strengths. It is through human interaction that we work together to achieve our successes in life.
Success can be anything from a job promotion, to making someone smile, to helping a friend with an assignment. Look at those examples - other people are directly involved in each scenario: someone must give a promotion in order for someone to receive a promotion. Someone must act a certain way to initiate a smile in another person. Someone must ask for help to receive help. The people around us are - more often than not - a catalyst to our own successes, whether we realise it or not.
Remember that success does not define you. You define success, and you are the one person who can determine exactly what it is and how successful you believe that you are in the life you live. There is no outline for how big or small a success can be, or how personal or widespread a success is - you are the judge of that. I urge you to challenge your ideas on what makes a 'successful person' and to think about who you consider to be successful people in your life and why. Know that one exam, one lost opportunity, or one mistake does not dictate your whole life. As long as you are happy with the person you are becoming and you can find meaning in what you do each and every day, you're already writing your success story.
-N
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