Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Success Has Wide Spectrum


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Is Success in Life a Mirage?

Success or success in life are much loosely used words. Generally, anyone who becomes a bit popular is seen or considered as a successful person. Is that really true? Are so called successful people really successful in all aspects of their life? Does being highly successful in some narrowly defined field(s), particularly at the cost of being failures in some other equally important aspects of life, equal being successful in entire life? Is it really possible to be successful in all the different aspects of life or is it a mirage? And if yes, how? This article discusses these issues.


Success: Wide Spectrum Paradigm

Success paradigms have a very wide spectrum. Seen as rich, turning into celebrity, becoming popular, getting known, seen as influential or recognition of your high status are pretty common success criteria for a very large number of people.

In a way, this means that you tend to feel successful when other people acknowledge that you are successful. It may be out of your approval addiction.

Even if you are not approval addict, you, on your own (irrespective of what others think), may also feel successful if you achieve certain degrees of any one or more of these things. However, even here, if large majority of others think that achieving the degrees of success you have achieved in the parameters listed above are not good enough for you to be recognized as successful, your own assessment of yourself as being successful may get diminished in your own mind. Again, approval addiction, may be of lower order.

Also, if you have all of these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) as per your assessment and others also recognize that you have achieved all of these but your own child thinks that you have neglected him/her all through his/her life and he/she hates you for that; are you really successful?

You have all of these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) as per your and others’ assessment but you have treated your spouse in a such a derogatory manner (intellectually, emotionally and physically) that she/he is on the brink of asking for divorce or running away with another person; are you really successful?

You have all of these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) but when your father or mother needs you most in his/her sickness or any other trying situation and you are away on your business all the time and grossly neglect him/her; are you really successful?

You have all of these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status), but fight tooth and nail with your brother(s) and/or sister(s) to meet some selfish ends and severe all the relationships, are you really successful?

You have all of these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status), but you did not look after your children's education, development and growth and because of this negligence, they ended up without any decent education, grew with skewed values, got into drugs and other bad habits, have become irresponsible and undisciplined, are you really successful?

You have all of these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status), but you wife has not grown much after her marriage with you since you have not supported her enough as a husband, are you really successful?

You have all of these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status), but you have not developed the capabilities of loving other people (your family members and some others) or have not genuinely loved them, are you really successful?

You have all of these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status), but you have not acquired and assimilated the proper education to develop yourself into a cultured and refined human being and constantly brag about yourself, belittle others and are in a habit of ill-treating and insulting the people, are you really successful?

You have all of these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status), but you have fallen into becoming a drunkard, a junkie, a womanizer, smuggler, bootlegger etc (even though the charges might not have been legally or socially acknowledged or confirmed), are you really successful?

You have all of these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status), but you have got into habit of saving your face by impressing upon people that you are successful or better than them or many others and in the process you have to act, pretend, fake or camouflage (meaning that you are not a genuine person), are you really successful?

You have all of these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) but a large section of people also throw rotten eggs or shoes at you or in extreme case, plan to kill you or even kill you because you have antagonized them harshly, unreasonably and unethically; are you really successful?

You have all these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) but you have been corrupt and greedy and have amassed money illegitimately (though may or may not have been caught doing so by law or by people); are you really successful?

You have all these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) but have misguided the people dependent on you, manipulated and exploited them to achieve your personal interests, took wrong decisions affecting the people (and have not been caught by law or by people), are you really successful?

You have all these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) but you have been responsible for hurting people physically or mentally or financially because of which those people suffered grossly in their life (and you have not been caught by law or people and you still live a high brow life shamelessly), are you really successful?

You have all these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) but your thinking, advices, decisions and actions have led to careless accidents, skirmishes, battles and wars killing civilian and military people, are you really successful?

You have all these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) but your thinking, advices, decisions and actions have led to provide, illegally or legally, such goods and services whose production, distribution, disposal and consumption pollute the environment and adversely affect the people health wise and economically, are you really successful?

You have all these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) but your thinking, advices, decisions and actions have led the prices of basic human requirements like essential food stuff, water, education and health care soar sky high to the extent that the citizens of the country/world cannot afford them, are you really successful?

You have all these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) but you have, in fact, bought all of these by manipulating/lobbying unscrupulously the power, the people and the media and it has not come to you by adopting natural, ethical and legal course, are you really successful?

You have all of these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status), but you have deprived yourself of understanding and enjoying the nuances and beauty of languages, science, biology, mathematics, technology, arts, sociology, civics, culture, nature etc normally learnt through formal and systematic primary, secondary, higher secondary and university education or even through informal self education outside of school and college, are you really successful?

You have all these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) but you are not able to look after your health due to variety of reasons though within your control and therefore, you are perennially physically, intellectually, mentally, emotionally or spiritually sick causing troubles to yourself and people around you, are you really successful?

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)