The study of success has always seemed fascinating to me. Throughout my professional life, I have loved reading great biographies of really successful people: businessmen, political leaders, athletes… Understanding why some people are successful and others are not is really interesting.
Now, WHAT IS SUCCESS? According to the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) success means a “happy result of a business, performance, etc…”. It also means “good acceptance that someone or something has.” Therefore, if we analyze these 2 meanings of the word success, we come to the conclusion that SUCCESS IS HAVING POSITIVE RESULTS, AND ALSO BEING WELL PERCEIVED BY OTHERS.
Without a doubt, it is a very difficult concept to define. Everyone understands success in their own way.
- For example, actor Denzel Washington defines success as “inner peace”; an intimate and personal vision of success.
- For the writer Maya Angelou, success is “liking yourself, liking what you do and liking how you do it”, with which she is also committed to a very personal vision of success.
- Michelle Obama thinks “success is not how much money you make, but the difference you make in the lives of others“, that is, a vision of success focused on the impact you have on others.
- I also find fascinating the definition of success by the tennis player Arthur Ashe “success is a journey, not a destination”. It is that success is not a specific point, it is not arriving or not arriving, but enjoying the journey.
- Also very interesting is the idea of Vince Lombardi – American football coach – who said, “the only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary”, emphasizing the importance of work to achieve any worthwhile challenge.
- Dale Carnegie said that “you will never be successful if you don’t like what you are doing”.
- I also want to emphasize that, according to Albert Schweitzer, a German doctor, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, “success is not the key to happiness; happiness is key to success. If you love what you do, you’re going to be successful.”
- In addition, I would highlight Winston Churchill‘s well-known quote about success and failure. The English Prime Minister said “success consists in going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm”.
- I would also highlight the vision of success of Zig Ziglar, American writer and lecturer: “There is no elevator to success, you have to take the stairs”; that is, there are no quick or short-term successes, you have to persevere and work hard to achieve it.
It could continue to incorporate new visions of the concept of success. But I SUMMARIZE 5 MAIN IDEAS:
- Success has an important internal component; be comfortable with yourself, you like what you do and how you do it
- Work and sacrifice are essential to achieve success
- Success does not lead to happiness, happiness helps you to succeed
- Failure is an essential part of success
- Success is not achieved quickly, you have to persevere and work hard to achieve it
I simply wanted to share with you some quotes and some exciting ideas to shed some light on a field as interesting as success. And I end with a quote that I heard a long time ago and I don’t know who it is from, but I love it. For me, it is the best definition of success and with which I feel most identified: “Success is getting the people you have admired, one day to admire you.”
