What is Success?

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”- Thomas A. Edison

Success is a funny thing. 

It means different things to different people, but there is no disputing the fact that everyone wants it. 

What is funny is that not everyone achieves it in the same way or indeed at the same pace. To some it seems to come too easily, but to others after a very long struggle, if at all. 

Rather than getting disheartened, it is a far better idea to understand that it is important to never give up, because success is yours for the taking. The only reason you haven’t found it is that you looked in the wrong place. So rather than mop and moan, which will amount to nothing, you have to look someplace else. Find it, you will.

Did you know that Thomas A. Edison tested a mind boggling 6000 materials to be used as the filament in the new improved electric light bulb he was designing, before he zeroed in on carbonized bamboo? Edison wasn’t an exception. You would be surprised at the kind of disappointments and heart-breaks most super achievers and celebrities faced when they started off. It was only because they were made of sterner stuff and knew that success could be theirs if they didn’t stop seeking it, did they achieve what they always desired.

It’s not for nothing that Winston Churchill once said, “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” Take the case of the billionaire authoress JK Rowling, who achieved the super success she did by writing the Harry Porter series of books only after she had had a string of miserable failures. This included a failed marriage, penury and twelve consecutive rejections of the manuscript of the book that she had so painstakingly created, by indifferent publishers. Most people would have thrown in the towel, but she did not and look at her now.

Did you also know that Walt Disney was given the boot by a newspaper editor because he apparently lacked imagination?! Even the first animation company he founded went under and before he finally received financial backing for Disney World, his proposal was turned down a record 302 times! If these worthies could fail so spectacularly and yet attain unbelievable success, it was not on account of good fortune shining on them, but because they chased after success relentlessly. 

Didn’t Paulo Coelho once say, “And, when you want something, all entire universe conspires in helping you to achieve it?” This notable formula for achieving success has always been known to man since ages. It is part of the cultural ethos of mankind. This explains why there are so many phrases and idioms that extol the virtue of persistence- fortune favors the brave, when the going gets tough the tough get going, if at first you don’t success, try, try, try again, and so on.

Like all good things in life success does not come easy, you have to work for it. One may turn around and talk about people who inherit fortunes or win lotteries and claim that these people achieved success without working hard for it. Well that’s not true at all. Inherited money is never seen, as a sign of success. If the person inheriting the money wants to grow or even maintain their inheritance they will have to work hard at it. Else they may just blow up their fortune and even if they don’t; you really don’t think that they would be considered worthy role-models? 

In fact, if you ask the child of an ace sportsperson or an iconic actor who decided to take up  their parent’s profession, they would tell you that it is doubly hard for them to prove their worth, for they would forever live in their famous parent’s shadow! Often they take a lifetime to be recognized for who they are rather than whose progeny they are. So success by its very intrinsic nature demands that you earn it.

The difference between those who achieve success and those who don’t is in the latter giving up at some stage in their striving for it. If you don’t give up, no matter what, you are bound to succeed, even on account of the mathematical law of probability! This is not a light remark. One can practically check out the veracity of the fact. It could be anybody at any stage of life.

Persistence and positivity in the face of adversity swings things in one’s favour in many ways including physiological. It is proven science that positivity changes the neural pathways that carry messages from the brain to the rest of the body in a positive way. This in a sense programs a person to succeed and do well. Once you start believing that you will achieve success you will on your own start taking the right decisions that will inexorably put you on the path to success.

Talk to any successful person and they will tell you that it was self-belief more than anything else that got them where they were. Sure there was a lot of strife, struggle and disappointment along the way, but because of their tremendous self-belief they persevered. There inevitable success came a time when they hit the sweet spot and after that there was no looking back. You could compare this to a supersonic aircraft approaching the sound barrier. There is turbulence and there is a booming sound at the time it goes through it, but after that there is sheer speed and exhilaration.

We all have it in us to crash through the sound barriers in our lives and achieve the desired speed or success that truly belongs to us. But in order for that to happen we have to step up the speed and apply total focus on the task ahead. If we slacken speed the desired success will forever elude our grasp. It is in staying the course and surging ahead with all we got that our salvation lies. Go for broke.

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