Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
What Success Means to Me
Definition of success
Personal Definition of Success
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: What Success Means to Me
If you had to Google the definition of success you would be find that success is ‘the accomplishment of aim or purpose, the attainment of popularity or profit, (or) a person that achieves desired aims or attains prosperity”. To every individual success has a different meaning, however each interpretation usually has three common traits: wealth, importance and contentment. By obtaining these three things the belief that we are distinguished and have gained unlimited opportunities is formed, however in pursuit of this we often lose sight of our morals. The race to success often becomes very messy in the sense that we mistreat others to reach the finish line, using success as an excuse. For example, Steve Jobs, arguably one of the most successful …show more content…
To some being able to feed their family dinner for a week could mean they feel rich and happy for a week - make them feel as though they are important to the survival to all in their family. To others success may be winning an election for mayor, a process that requires money for funding, the making of important decisions and a process that can leave a winner feeling fulfilled. To most people in Greenwich the second is a much more relatable idea of success, this maybe because of the environment we live in: one of wealth and “freedom”, or perhaps it is because of the influence of the books and television shows we watch which depict success as major accomplishments. This constant repetition of success having to be a stellar achievement is a large influence on our own measurement of success. As children if we see a child being given praise for his or her accomplishment of reading an entire book our own excitement over finishing a chapter suddenly seems much less important. This kind of competitive or jealous thinking continues throughout our lives, forcing us to accomplish greater things but also not allowing us to celebrate our …show more content…
Although as a society we are taught to believe that innate talent creates success, it is only “if you are willing to work to develop that ability, (that) the system will reward you”. Opportunities are presented everyday, although not all will seem important each one has a domino effect - as in it sets another opportunity in motion. Each time you take an opportunity and make an advantage you will climb the ladder from ordinary to extraordinary - but this spot as extraordinary can be easier knocked out from underneath you. Therefore you must put time and effort into achieving your success, a decision that often leads to the sacrifice of friends and family. Opportunities do not just appear out of thin air, for someone to give you an opportunity you have to earn their trust and acquire their attention, one of the only ways of doing both these things is through hard work. Hard work can result in remarkable results or hard work can lead to nothing but a lifetime of dead ends. Despite the thinking that it is more important to “care about your output not your input.”, I believe that hard work is not only more valuable but constantly working hard shows a lot about character: that you can be focused, loyal and trustworthy. Another essential, yet often forgotten, ingredient to success is advantage. Those who have a wealthy family, a physical upper hand or have much more experience
The American college dictionary defines success as 1. The favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors, 2. The gaining of wealth, possessions, or the like. This has been the general seances for the past hundred years or more. But in more modern days the prospective of success has changed slightly. It has shifted to having a good education, going to collage, getting a carrier getting married & having children. Having your own home and eventually dying and passing it all on to a child or children. Success is no longer satisfaction or personal goals. It has been supplemented by the goals society has preset for the populous that have been drilled into the minds of the young from the very beginning. To a man named Santiago in The Old Man and The Sea by: Earnest Hemingway, success was to conquer the Marlin Santiago had fought for so long. But as a cruel twist of fate his success is taken away in an instant when the prize he had fought so hard for was eaten by sharks, leaving Santiago with no spoils left to show for his hard fight. He was even so crushed by of the loss of the Marlin that he cried out to the sea "I am beaten.....hear stands a broken man" (234). Santiago still experienced success in the fashion that when he returned to port the little boy named Manolin that he had taught how to fish earlier in the novel was allowed to come back to fish with him. This was the ultimate form of success that was perceived for Santiago by Hemingway. To Jean Valjean in Les Misreables By: Victor Hugo , Valjean's success was represented in the form of going from convict to loving father of a daughter. The little girl named Cosette may not have been his true daughter, but after he had had dinner with a bishop that had seen the possibility of good in he started the transformation of his life. he met Cosettes mother and vowed to save her daughter from the place where she was being kept. The success Valjean experienced was what made his character the man that he was. But to Willa Cather in My
There are many different definitions of success, and many depend on the person defining it. Success can be achieving your goal of running a mile or not failing a math test. It can be independence or not embarrassing yourself in public. To achieve these versions of success, you need to practice and put in effort. After all, Gladwell says if you work hard enough you can do anything and “Achievement is talent plus preparation.” (Gladwell 221). The above definitions of success are similar to my own. I define success as reaching my goals, not being in debt (money wise), and having independence. I also agree with Gladwell that wealth, power, and fame are indicators of success, however, I do not gauge my own success on power or fame. My definition of success has not changed because of the Outliers, but it has changed over time. As I age, my view of the world changes and so does my definition of success.
Success can be an extremely broad subject. There is an abounding amount of different views on what the “true” definition of success is. Personally, I believe that success is finding happiness. Success is waking up in the morning and not having to worry about whether or not the bills are going to be paid this month. Success is having a job that you enjoy going to every day. Success is having friends and family who love and support you. Success does not mean that one has to be exceedingly rich or have a lakeside mansion. As long as they are happy, they have succeeded in life.
Success has a different meaning for every person on Earth. The majority of people define success as an individual’s “attainment of wealth, favor, or eminence” (Success). In accordance with the rest of society, Malcolm Gladwell defines success as an individual’s accumulation of “a predictable and powerful set of circumstances and opportunities” given by the environment to help a person succeed in the business world (Gladwell 155). Advantages come in the forms of birth dates, learning styles, work ethics, demographic luck, and job needs. Similarly, opportunities given by the environment circulate around a person’s ability to complete “ten thousand hours… of greatness” (41). Before reading Gladwell’s book “Outliers: The Story of Success”, I would have complied with society’s and Gladwell’s
´´ If one advances confident in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. ’’ These words were spoken by Henry David Thoreau.Success is within the mind of the individual. A large portion of one´s life is spent working to become successful. People are told throughout childhood to work hard so they can grow up and achieve all of their dreams. But success takes many different forms. Different people have different interpretations of what success means to them. It does not matter how related they are to each other in certain áreas they always have a different point of view of what success really is. For some success is measured by social status and wealth
There is no concrete definition for success, and there is not a foolproof way to obtain it, but it is something many strive for. In Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell explains, with examples of successful people throughout history, that hard work along with a little bit of luck and willingness to seize every opportunity is the only way to become successful. Malcolm Gladwell illustrates throughout the story external factors that are mostly uncontrollable and internal factors like hard work that are very controllable lead to these outliers and unimaginable success stories.
The American dream, essentially the constantly reiterated and embellished idea of someone who possessed nothing and ended up with everything, tends to bring misconceptions among citizens today about the nature of success itself. What this idea promotes is essentially that anyone can climb the social ladder regardless of the circumstances surrounding him or her. However, it must be noted that even though many have the potential to be...
As Malcolm Gladwell would explain, opportunity is the keystone to success. Despite how intellectual, outgoing, or hard working one is, there is a threshold to talent, and the volume of future possibilities matter much more. As noteworthy Indian economist Amartya Sen states, “Poverty is not just lack of money; it is not having the capability to realize one’s full potential as a human being.” Success is based on opportunity and the communal factors of parents and teachers that influence a young adult. To truly succeed, an individual’s efforts go beyond academia and depends on opportunities. Success goes “...beyond the individual...They had to appreciate the idea that the values of the world we inhabit and the people we surround ourselves with have a profound effect on who we are” (10). Although rising out of poverty is a difficult task, being “buried in that setback [can be] a golden opportunity”
The definition of success can be different for everyone based on how they percieve the term. To me, success is doing all you can do to try to come out on top. A scenario of this would be during a basketball match, your team is down by 12 points, everyone is running the fastest they can, shooting as accurate as they can, and supporting one another
Success is within the mind of the individual. A large portion of ones life is spent working to become successful. People are told throughout childhood to work hard so they can grow up and make lots of money. But success takes many different forms. Different people have different interpretations of what success means to them. For some, success is measured by social status and wealth; for others success is determined only by the amount of happiness one feels.
'One has achieved success who has lived well and laughed often.'; This quote seems to sum up what is meant by success. If you are able to laugh often and much then you have definitely achieved happiness. The idea of living well, though, is a very broad statement. In order, then, to define success in relation to this statement, we must first define what it means to live well. There are three levels of success, in my opinion: societal success, personal success, and academic or professional success. If someone can achieve all of these three levels of success, they are someone who has lived well.
The true definition of success is the accomplishment of an aim or purpose. Although, many people have different perceptions of success. Success is judged by the individuals themselves. Success can be defined in many ways including: wealth, happiness, fame, etc. Success can be anything from material goods to concepts. It all depends on your concept and how you achieve your goals. You have to have persistence within yourself. Varying on your profession, you will need a certain skill level. Your definition of success can be suitable best for you, but not for others. It is about truly not giving up, reaching your full potential, and self-fulfillment.
Is there someone you know that is wealthy and prominent? Do they demonstrate the characteristics of a successful person in today’s society? Media today has effectively convinced our society into accepting an untrue, even possibly hazardous definition of success. Even though Webster’s dictionary defines success as “achieving wealth, respect, and fame,” the definition of success is different for everyone. Society wants us to accept that having money, having big house, and owning multiple cars is the key to happiness, and henceforth, success. This is a lie; success is not having a large amount of money nor does it have to deal with fame.
Meaning of success has become confusing. We live in the world that tells us that it is important to be rich rather than be happy. We all know examples of people who are famous and rich, but are very unhappy. For example comedian Dave Chappelle had his own TV show and became a famous and a rich person. Yet underneath he was very unhappy; He was so unhappy that he had to stop his show because he had a nervous breakdown from the pressure of being
Success is something we all wish to achieve and even though we have different definitions of success, we all want to success in different aspects of our lives. For some success, success is attaining an education, others it's getting a good job, for others it's being wealthy, and others to start and own a business while for others it's having a family of our own and seeing our children prosper. We all have different metrics of measuring success and we all have different goals, but it is part of human instinct to want success, to want to succeed in everything we do no matter how small or big. Success gives us a feeling of development and growth, a sense of gratification that we are no longer where we used to be, but rather