Success…

While walking the aisles of a local store, I ran into a discussion amongst several people talking and blocking my pathway to the cookie section. As I inched my way forward it was difficult to not hear the topic to which they were speaking. The topic centered on the discussion of one of the group members and a recent lawsuit that had just been settled and how pleased they were that, with the help of an attorney, they were successful in winning the lawsuit and how additionally happy they were in the final settlement that would give them a little extra money for the upcoming holidays. Wishing to avoid becoming entangled in the discussion I quickly moved my cart past the group and continued my search for the cookie section. I was successful in getting past the group and also finding there were still several packages of my favorite on the shelf. I quickly tossed two packages into my shopping cart and moved on.

   On my ride home I began to think about the discussion I overheard and the word ‘’success,’ which was spoken many times in the discussion and what it actually meant, especially in today’s world. So as I often find myself doing these days, when I arrived home I asked Alexa to give me a modern definition of the word “success.” And her response was what I expected, the positive accomplishment of a goal or task. But looking back on my life and trying to evaluate my personal successes, I considered the idea that there may be a very thin line between what is a success or a failure and perhaps the two are interrelated.

   We have become a society obsessed with success. It could be related to wealth, a happy marriage, a job promotion, getting elected to a high political office, the college in which your child was accepted, or even dipping to a low level of swindling others out of money with a promise to them of receiving riches and big rewards.

   For those of you that read my posts, you know that I am at a stage in life where I am doing some downsizing and cleaning, and recently a book entitled Success. It was a book that was given to those attending a workshop and training session on leadership.  Sometimes timing can be a bit scary. Why did it drop off the shelf now?  Assuming there was a message here for me, I sat down and began to read some of the many quotes and thoughts on success from people who might consider themselves to be successful.

   There were several quotes that got my attention. From Theodore Roosevelt..  “The most important single ingredient in the formula for success is knowing how to get along with people.” Another quote that caught my attention from Euripides. “Along with success comes a reputation for wisdom.”

   As I continued to thumb through the pages of the book, I noticed that many of the comments were attributed to people I had never heard of before or from a time many years prior to our current generations. But regardless of who said it, there were several common themes and messages about being successful.

   One of the recurring themes from many of the statements focused on perfection and all seemed to agree that perfection, as a human being, is extremely hard to achieve. Perfection may be more of a dream than that of reality. Most agreed that we do not need to be perfect to be successful. As Billy Joel, a current and well know name in the book said… “You’re only human, you are supposed to make mistakes.”

   The word ‘failure’ in our current world is one that most people will not use, let alone admit to having failed at something on occasion. Failure is seen by many as a weakness while success is viewed as a strength. But the reality may be that before there is success there may be failures or mistakes along the way and it are those sometimes perceived failures or mistakes that foster and can lead to greater successes.

   Looking back, I will admit that not everything I did or attempted to do was successful. What may be more important for me, though, is that I tried and often just trying opened up many new and exciting experiences and opportunities throughout my lifetime.

The year is 2023. “Success” has, more often than not, become such an important part of life that it causes us to behave in ways past generations would never have understood. Today success, in many ways, is seen more as control and power rather than a personal accomplishment. For me, success is not winning the game but being a team player, contributing to everyone’s feeling of success and accomplishments.