Success

The secret of success can be learnt from the life histories of successful people. If we identify and adopt the qualities of successful people, we too shall be successful. Similarly, there are characteristics common to people who aren’t successful. If we avoid those characteristics, then we shall not be failures. Success is no mystery. It is simply the result of consistently applying some basic principles. The reverse is just as true : Failure is simply a result of making a few mistakes repeatedly.

What makes a person successful ? To some people, success might mean wealth. To others, it is recognition, good health, a good family, satisfaction and peace of mind.  Success means different things to different people. “Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal.”

Here ‘progressive’ means that success is a journey, not a destination. We never complete our journey, after we reach a goal, we go on to next and the next and so on.

‘Realization’ means it is an experience. Outside forces cannot make us feel successful. We have to feel it within ourselves.

‘Worthiness’ refers to our value system, without which goals can be unworthy. Worthiness determines the quality of the journey. That is what gives meaning and fulfillment. Goals are important because they give us a sense of direction.

“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”

To be a person of success, we may have to encounter heart – breaking obstacles.

Once a biology teacher was teaching his students how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly.  He told the students, that in the next couple of hours, the butterfly would struggle to come out of the cocoon, but no one should help the butterfly. Then he left.

The students were waiting and it happened. The butterfly struggled to get out of the cocoon and against the advice of the teacher, one of the students took pity on it and decided to help the butterfly to come out of the cocoon. He broke the cocoon to help it, so that it didn’t have to struggle anymore. But, shortly afterwards, the butterfly died.

When the teacher returned, he was told what had happened. He explained to the student that it is a law of nature, that the struggle to come out of the cocoon actually helps the butterfly to develop and strengthen its wings.

Apply this same principle to our lives. No success in life comes without a struggle. Everything is difficult before it becomes easy. We cannot run away from our problem. Only losers quit and give up.