Success is defined by individual

How do you measure success?

Do you equate success with the amount of money you have earned?

Or does success come from a specific accomplishment in your life?

Studies of successful people indicate that people have many meanings for success. No one definition of success will satisfy everybody. According to Dr. Robert Sharpe, author of The Success Factor, everyone has to define what success means to them personally.

And in making a personal definition of success a lot is revealed about that person.

Success for some means being well-known and acquiring fame.

For others, it may mean finding adventure or making an important discovery.

Some people have to be leaders.

Others are content to be good followers.

Some wish to develop and shape certain talents. They are happiest in self-expressions, writing a story, painting a landscape, dancing in a ballet, portraying a role in a play.

Some are happiest when their progress is measured by material rewards. They believe success means a huge salary, an extravagant home or the possession of rare jewels.

Others believe that success means service to their fellow man and the care and expression of love for their own family.

Harold S. Kusher, the rabbi who wrote the best seller When Bad Things Happen to Good People, said in a recent article that sooner or later, “we all learn that immortality is rooted not in our professional involvements and achievements, but in our families. If our memories endure, it will be because of the people we have known and touched.”

Kusher said that at one time his work was his priority. He said many of us are brainwashed by a society that believes doing something that makes money is more valuable than doing something that shapes people’s souls. He learned, he said, that devotion to one’s family, the nurturing of your children and getting to know and spend time with your loved ones are rewards that mean far more than financial success.

Aptly so, studies of success also show that definitions of success vary at different times in life. For instance, a person may describe success as having his own Porsche. Later, he may describe success as passing the bar. Still later, his goal for success may be to win a certain legal case for a client whom he feels has suffered a miscarriage of justice.

And it may be why so many who have amassed huge fortunes become philanthropists and in their later years give much to serve their fellow man.

Psychologists say it is important for each person to discover his or her own specific needs – to find what makes them happiest and set goals to reach success along these lines. The bottom line is you can’t judge success by someone else’s standards. But you can study their lives and find comparisons.

Copyright c 1990 Harold H. LeCrone, Jr., Ph.D.