My Definition of Success Essay

Success is a word that really hard to define, because everyone will have a different definition for this word. In fact, there no exact definition for the word "success". For a student, maybe the success means to pass all courses of the semester; for a business man, signing a importance contract and get a lot of money are successes; and for a president, leading the country to develop and make the people have a better life are success. For me, I also have my own definition for the word "success". When I was a kid, I really want to be a scientist, but after I become mature, my thinking has become more mature and my definition of success also

Another area many people tend to aim to be successful in is the concept of the American Dream. It is thought that if you live in America you need to fulfill the goal of achieving the American Dream and if it is not achieved or not meant to be achieved then the life lived has been a failure. Older generations and even present generations want the younger generations to get good grades, have a ‘successful’ college life, get a professional job, get married, have kids, and buy a big, just because that is normal to everyone but some may choose to live their life not as vanilla. William Zinsser talks about how everyone just follows the social norm in order to be seen as successful, “Our advertisements and TV commercials are a hymn to material success, our magazines articles a toast to people who made it to the top... He is our national idol, and everybody else is our national fink” (Zinsser 601). Becoming a specific type of successful is being pushed onto teenagers who are still struggling to find out who they are and what they want to do. They may want to figure out a different way to become successful in their own independent way.

I define success as trying you're hardest no matter what and persevering through everything that you try. You may not get through the problem that you are having. Even though you didn't complete the challenge that you were having if you got as much out of the task that was placed in front of you, then you have succeeded. I also define success as when you set a goal for you're self or someone else sets a goal for you. If you reach that goal or go above that goal that was set, then you have succeeded. I believe that success is not just finishing you're work, test or challenge, if you finish it but do not do you're best and try you're hardest, then I believe that you are not successful in what you just did, but if you go as hard as you can, not

The meaning of "success" has numerous interpretations, whether it is your own or society's definition. Within Outliers author Malcolm Gladwell explains that being successful has nothing to do with what kind of person you are, so whether you are intelligent and hardworking or lazy and aloof, it depends on your circumstances growing up. Whether your parents happen to be immigrants, you are one of the smartest men in the country or you make a habit of practicing an activity for a certain amount of hours a day, your own personal success, according to Gladwell is defined by the conditions you grew up in; the idea of being successful varies from culture to culture, therefore, there is no definite meaning of success other than one's interpretation.

When I think of wildly successful people, people like Michelle Obama and Steve Jobs come to mind; my name usually does not appear on the list. Granted, I have not invented anything of use to the general public, or dedicated my life to any worthy cause, nor am I making oodles of money by anyone’s standards. But in other ways, am I not as successful as them? I have (generally) earned good grades, I have great friends, I am hardworking and independent, and I have skills that many people do not have. However, in the same vein, how much of my success can I really claim as my own? Just like Malcolm Gladwell observed in his book Outliers, there is always a lot more to success than there appears to be—and as I found out in the course of analyzing

Success comes from self-determination, motivation, and hard work – that was the message I received from reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell helped me understand that the outliers mentioned in the book didn’t gain their success easily. Some may have had lucky opportunities and where born in the right year, but they had to work hard, they were smart, and out of their achievements, they made an impact on society. Prior to reading Outliers, I was lost among the success of others because I thought these people came from wealthy families, which meant they had a head start, but I was wrong. Success has a different meaning to everyone, but the commonalities of success are the advantages and opportunities given to us.

Being successful in life is not always easy, because of different ways that success can be achieved. With many theories out there on success, it is hard to figure out what is needed to be done to gain success. In everyone’s lives there are many different beliefs out there that can lead to it. In the book “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell, there are numerous theories that are covered with examples of successful people. They clearly show how success can be done in not just one way but in many others. The most known people that are considered to be successful are billionaires and celebrities. They all have gained success in their lives in their own diverse ways. A good set of successful people in the world today to talk about are Mark Zuckerberg, Whitney Houston, and Nicholas Sparks. These people all come from different backgrounds before gaining their success. Malcolm Gladwell discussed many theories in the book “Outliers” that can relate to the success of the people mentioned above. The true knowledge behind success can be achieved in numerous ways.

Even though most people easily recognize societal success easily, it does little in regards to enhancing the apparently “successful” person’s sense of

 Everyone’s vision of success is different. Wealth, happiness, and fame are all the stereotypical goals of the common person’s so-called “American Dream.” My American dream includes more of the first two aspects than anything else. Happiness is the most important; without happiness, wealth and fame are useless. Without happiness, success cannot exist. If you cannot look at yourself in the mirror and evaluate your own life as a success, then why should anyone else consider you successful? Wealth can contribute to happiness. No matter what anyone says, having more material goods makes your standard of living better, which normally is a direct connection to happiness. Fame, to me, isn’t needed but rather acquired through the life of the successful person. A legacy is more honorable than fame, because after death fame is a more humble characteristic. Changing others lives, after they looked at your life in retrospect, makes fame an irreplaceable part in success.

How the world defines success varies from one's personal achievements and the culture from which that motivation to succeed grows. What is to say the worlds greatest achievement is the ability to praise the very accomplishment of others, or perhaps its biggest atrocity. The success of others is often viewed not in their achievement that originally made them a successor, but what that prosperity has done. What is the atrocity of success is not its foundation, but the multitude of fortune’s it might bring. Such fortunes include money, popularity, and power. No “successful” person is absent of these staples to their success. Perhaps what is worse is how success, in its most prevalent form, creates sentiments of exclusivism.

Most people in today’s society define success as someone who makes a lot of money or has done something important to help form today’s society. People such as Bill Gates or Donald Trump are considered successful because they have lots of money. Even actors whose lives are wrecked and destroyed are considered successful because of the money they have. Others, like Thomas Edison, are considered successful because of accomplishments they achieved in their lives. Thomas Edison, for example, created the light bulb, so most people would consider him successful. In his book, Think & Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill gives 13 steps on how to have the right mindset, attitude, and ability to become successful.

Everything present in the universe is a relatable term just like the word ‘success’. Like most of the definitions, the interpretation of success varies with the people’s perception so it is rather impossible to understand success in a simple way. In the present era, most of the people relate success with the materialistic achievements such as wealth, power and fame while some prefer to evaluate success by assessing the contribution of the person to the society. Many great poets, politicians, writers and songwriters have inked their own version of the definition of success and one of the great many quotes by Bob Dylan is “A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.” Dylan

In his poem, “What is Success,” Ralph Waldo Emerson gave priceless insight when he wrote:

In this age in which we live, success is generally measured by the amount of money you earn, or the amount of wealth or power or number of promotions you’ve accumulated. I find that the older I grow, the more I view the people who are most happy and content with their lives as the most successful. Rich, poor or in between, they’ve tended to treat life as a journey, not a final destination. They took that trip when they were 25 even though they really couldn’t afford it, they ordered the $55 bottle of wine with their filet because they knew that even though it was expensive it would enhance the meal so much more than water would. They took a chance on a start-up company, moved to Europe or Asia and experienced things that most people only dream about. If they managed to grow wealthy from the experience, so much the better. As long as moderation with most things is practiced, things won’t spin out of control.

Most people commonly describe success, as being wealthy in life. This is not the meaning entirely, the definition of success is simple. A person is successful, if he or she has very good payment at his or her work and if he or she is happy with the job, they are doing. Education really leads to success. If a person has good education, he or she can choose their careers and be successful at it. Education is a form of learning in which the knowledge and skills is being transferred from a group of people to another or from a generation to the next, through teaching and training. Any experience that has a formative effect on the way someone thinks feels and acts can be said to be educational. Apart from education, other different traits lead