The Meaning Of Success Argumentative Essay

Introduction

Success is an issue, which reflects the accomplishment of a specific aim or purpose. The accomplishment of a goal, which had been identified prior to taking up activities, can be defined as success. Success has been interpreted in the wrong way by the culture and media within which the society lives today. Television and the media have created typical examples of success such as having a car, a new phone, a good job, and high education levels. Success in most cases is viewed as the situation where an individual is higher than others within the society. However, the representation of success by the media and modern society are misguided. Indeed, success does not feature in having money, but it occurs in having personal satisfaction and inner peace thus success is being comfortable, achieving harmony, and personal goals without being under pressure from external sources.

Success is money

Money is a tool, which has been used in modern societies to measure success. In fact, the use of money in measuring success and it has led individuals to ask whether one would prefer being rich and unhappy or being poor and happy. Wealth is a simple way of evaluating and defining success but not for all individuals. The real issue in using money or wealth to measure success is the manner in which the individual acquired the money. For example, if one acquires their money and wealth through corruption, then their success does not mean that one is happy from their success. In this perspective, the most important question is to consider whether the money accrued by an individual makes him or her happy (Friedberg, 2012). Happiness is an indicator of success as opposed to money without happiness. Truly, there are instances of individuals who have a lot of wealth and money but are unhappy throughout their life. The answer to the question of money and success lies in the happiness as well as means of obtaining the money. Furthermore, the use of the money is a factor that indicates whether an individual is happy or not (James, 2015). Some individuals have access to money and resources, but they merely misuse it thus are not happy thus it cannot be attributed to success.

Success is satisfaction

Other than money, social contribution as well as accomplishments can be another approach in measuring success for an individual. The satisfaction from a particular process is an indicator of success as individuals feel happy and rewarded from their participation or activities in the process. For example, teachers in elementary school have little earnings and are unlikely to make extra money. However, they have a significant contribution to the society. The contribution of teachers in the elementary school level is to help in shaping the future generations in the right manner. Furthermore, they contribute to creating role models and individuals who will define what success is in the future (Baer, 2014). The case of satisfaction directly contributes to that of success and reflects on the happiness that an individual accrues from their contribution. Additionally, entrepreneurs are successful and enjoy success because they bring innovations, which completely change the manner in which individuals conduct their daily activities. In this case, it is evident that success is accrued from satisfaction as satisfaction is directly connected to happiness and the feeling of worthiness.
Additionally, satisfaction reflects on the contributions that in individual will make not only on the current society but also on the future societies. For example, writers compose poems and books, which inspire current and future generations based on the sense that the content makes. In this perspective, success in their situation is accrued from the satisfaction of accomplishing a milestone, which is publishing a book, and not from the money that comes from sales(Baer, 2014). The authors find success in knowing that their books will pass knowledge from themselves to other generations and that the knowledge influences the future generations in changing how they view the world and problems around the world. The accomplishment of specific milestones indicates success for an individual as one can measure the milestones with the personal goals that they had set (Baer, 2014). Defining success is not possible as individuals have their limits as well as personally defined scopes of evaluating their progress or achievement of specific tasks.

Success is enjoying your work

Truly, success is accrued from the joy that one gains while doing their work. Enjoying work does not only reflect on personal success but also reflects on the achievement of personal expectations. In different workplaces people just labor without any satisfaction or joy. While working, some individuals almost work as machines without placing their emotions in the work that they do. However, others are fully involved in their work process and commit themselves to delivering nothing but quality and the best. In this case, such individuals enjoy success because they find value in their work. Furthermore, they understand that their contribution affects other individuals down the line (Jun, 2014). Significantly, the working habits of an individual also indicate whether he or she enjoys their work and whether their work can be classified as success. For example, some individuals enjoy their work only when they are performing field expeditions but rarely enjoy doing office work. As such, their work is only success when they are in the field and not when they are in the office.
In the case of enjoying work, one must classify their jobs either their jobs either their jobs either as merely work or a job. Indeed, there is a notion that indicates the difference between work and a job. Individuals enjoy going to their job but do not enjoy work. As such, work appears as a regular activity from which individuals just participate. However, the job is a task, which individuals enjoy and gain motivation from. Furthermore, one should ask him or herself whether the job motivates them to wake up in the morning. For an individual who is motivated to wake up in the morning, he or she enjoys their work and is a success (Jun, 2014). However, individuals who are tired or bored at the thought of going to work, theirs is just labor without satisfaction and joy thus not a success. Furthermore, the success of work can be attributed to the results, which an individual produces. If the results continue to improve over time thus the quality of work improves, then the individual is successful. However, if the results from the work continue to deteriorate over time, then an individual is not successful or may not be deriving joy from their work.

Success is constant growth

Evidently, success is constant growth as growth represents development. However, success is not only growth in the physical body but also growth in business or career. Growth in the physical body does not indicate success as such as it may be attributed by biological factors. On the other hand, success in business or career is attributed to hard work and diligence. In this case, the nature of growth is significant while evaluating whether the growth is success or not. Constant growth in these specific fields indicates that an individual is perfecting or learning new skills thus the individual is appreciating and increasing in value (Friedberg, 2012). Growth and success are linked if an individual appreciates the growth and sees the growth as a chance to expand. The translation of growth will indicate whether the process is success or not. For example, if growth means competing with other individuals unfairly or unethically, then the growth may not be considered as success due to the shoddy approach of attaining it. However, if an individual enjoys growth from competing fairly and taking time to learn through the process of growth, then this growth will be considered as success. In this case, the aspect of success is also linked to the aspect of satisfaction and happiness because constant and consistent growth are supposed to bring along happiness and satisfaction to an individual. The growth, which translates to success, is that which results to happiness and takes individuals to the right direction in terms of bringing progress and positive change to previous ways.

Success is deeply individual

Evidently, success is deeply individual. In fact, success is only measured by the personal descriptions of success. For example, if an individual works hard to accomplish the purpose or goal of buying a car and eventually he or she buys the car, and then this is success. Furthermore, if one works hard at school in order to attain a degree and they attain the degree, then they will be successful given that they attain the degree. The aspect of being deeply individual is one, which means that the issue or scope of personal success is one in which individuals will evaluate for themselves and measure according to the personal scope or limits set. Some may limit their success to the sky, thus failing to reach the sky means that they are not successful.
Personal goals will indicate and reflect the success of individuals (Mueller, 2015). In some cases, students may study in the same class but set different goals according to their learning abilities. One student may set a target of A in their grades while the other may set a target of C because he struggles with academic work. When the student with a low target achieves the C and the A student achieves a B, the C student will have been successful because their goals limited and identified their scope. The B student may have identified a higher goal and achieve a higher grade, but his grade is not success because he did not attain his potential.

Conclusion

Success can only be defined through personal descriptions, as individuals understand their limitations and potential. In this case, success is not general and individuals cannot use personal measures of success to evaluate whether their colleagues are successful or not. Modern society and the media have some specific measures of success, but success is only measured by personal satisfaction and happiness.

References

Baer, D. (2014, June 2). How 9 Incredibly Successful People Define Success. Retrieved April 8, 2015, from http://www.businessinsider.com/how-9-incredibly-successful-people-define-success-2014-5
James, G. (2015, April). What is Success? Here`s a Better Definition. Retrieved April 8, 2015, fromhttp://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/what-is-success-better-definition.html
Jun, P. (2014, June). The Real Meaning of Success. Retrieved April 8, 2015, fromhttp://www.lifehack.org/articles/work/the-true-meaning-of-success.html
Mueller, S. (2015, February). The meaning of Success and How to Define Success in Life. Retrieved April 8, 2015, fromhttp://www.planetofsuccess.com/blog/2010/accomplishment-the-meaning-of-success-and-how-to-define-success-in-life/
Friedberg, B. (2012, February). Is Money the Only Measure of Success? Retrieved April 8, 2015, fromhttp://barbarafriedbergpersonalfinance.com/money-only-measure-of-success/