Redefining Success: Beyond Wealth and Recognition

Everyone can think of at least one person whom they think has reached success in their life. However, the perception of the word “success” is different for everyone. Let’s take Bill Gates as an example. Many people think he is successful in being the creator of Microsoft. Most people associate Bill Gates’ degree of successfulness with his astonishing net worth of 83.6 billion dollars. And few think he is successful in being a businessman that market products or services that solve people's problems. His extensive knowledge, monetary asset value and willingness to advance people with the use of technology are all ways that society defines the degree that somebody has to succeed. However, is this the best way to measure success? The answer is

Without a meaning behind an action, a person feels they are wasting time and they begin to dislike their work. In The Metamorphosis, Gregor complains about his job saying, ‘“Oh, God,’ He thought, ‘what a strenuous profession, I’ve chosen- traveling day in, day out!’” (946). The real reason Gregor hates his job and finds it meaningless is because he has to pay off his parent’s. At first, Gregor did not mind paying off his parent’s debt because “his successes at work translated directly into cash that he could lay on the table at home before his astonished and pleased family” (959). Gregor found meaning and joy in helping provide for his family in a time of need. However, he started to dislike working and providing for his family because “they simply got used to it” and the “special warmth” of providing for his family vanished (959). He lost emotional connections with his family and thus lost the meaning of his job. Franz Kafka was trying to inform the people through Gregor that when people try to keep the balanced order of their family by doing all the work without anyone else helping them, they lose the meaning and purpose in everything they do to “help” their family. Therefore, Franz Kafka wants people to live their life the way that they want to live it. Nobody should be bossing you around and telling you to do something that you don’t

The Persistence of Memory is painted in a dream state. In the painting are four melted pocket watches. When we dream, we are completely unaware of time and we don’t have any control over it because the clocks have lost their power and are useless in the dream world. The red clock has ants on it that have eaten away the surface of the clock, allowing it to be completely powerless and symbolizing our impermanent nature to keep time. In addition, all the clocks tell a different time, causing confusion because we have an obsession with knowing the exact time of day. It’s stated in his autobiography, at twenty-seven years old the painting was created. He has painted this painting because he wishes he could go back, into a dream world and live as an adolescent again. When he was an adolescent he always wanted to grow up and wished time away to grow up faster. The background of the painting advocates that since he was always wishing his life away as an adolescent, he doesn’t remember what the landscape of his town looked like triggering a wish to relive his childhood forever. In this painting, Salvador Dalí is promoting the idea we, as a society, need to overlook time when we are awake and live our life. If we’re repetitively obsessed with time, then we are going to live and meaningless childhood and when we realize this is might