Goals.
Every successful individual starts a portion of his or her life with a goal in mind. A motivated individual will work to achieve those goals, and a successful individual will eventually achieve those goals.
Some of you may already spot out the major error in my reasoning stated in the previous statement. “But Chris,” you may ask, “what about people whose goals consist of lounging around doing nothing all day?”
I would respond with but a simple statement: “They have succeeded.”
There are many types of people in this world. People who aim to achieve, people who aim to enjoy, and people who aim to…well, do whatever. Nobody has an exact definition of a “successful person” because this definition changes from person to person and from culture to culture. One can be perceived as successful by a large population, but that doesn’t mean that everyone will agree.
Note that I am a Commerce student, not a Philosopher, so my reasoning may be flawed. Bear with me, if you would please.
Many students may feel that success is based on achievements, others feel that success comes from one’s personality, and others feel that success is based on happiness. I personally feel that a successful person is defined by his or her actions, and that their personality and happiness will eventually flow from their person.
Note that I am a psychology nerd and that I could probably back up my opinion with various excerpts from Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Robert Sapolsky’s experiments on chimpanzees and happiness-but I won’t. Not the time, Chris, not the time.
