<p>What is success? Is it being able to provide for your family and children? Is it feeling like your work is important therefore you are important? Is is it making a lot of money? Is it having a job that allows you to not worry about financial stuff so you can focus on the "more important" things in your life? Are we all chasing something that doesn't exist?</p>
<p>success is when you’re happy with what you’ve got, and you’re doing stuff you want to do. it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve accomplished all your goals, it might just mean you’re working toward them and like the direction you’re going in.</p>
<p>it doesn’t mean you have to love your job - a lot of people hate their jobs, but they like being able to provide for their families, so that makes them happy. other people get a lot of satisfaction from their jobs, and feel their work is a “calling” or whatever. some people choose not to work at all, they feel successful being stay-at-home parents and raising kids. other people would hate that, and feel their life is wasted being a housewife. money matters more to some than others; quality of life is defined differently depending on the person. so success is different for everyone…and it definitely exists. your personal idea of success might be something another person would be unhappy with.</p>
<p>also, happy hannukah everyone! or however you spell it</p>
<p>It varies from person to person so trying to define ‘success’ is completely pointless.</p>
<p>Being sustainably happy.</p>
<p>This sounds like an essay prompt. It’s a trap!</p>
<p>Also,
</p>
<p>pointless thread is pointless. quit trying to sound smart</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Making enough money to pursue other things (marine biology, world travel, etc).</p></li>
<li><p>Making it so that my folks don’t have to work so hard anymore.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>
</p>
<p>That doesn’t mean you can’t find a universal pattern representation. Success isn’t tangible obviously. All I am asking is to explain what people generally refer or relate to when they say ‘success’.</p>
<p>Success comes to those people who can put the blame for his own faults on other people, at the right time!</p>
<p>This was a joke.</p>
<p>Actualy, you need to work hard, keeping your goals in mind. However i have heard that Behind every successful Man/Woman there is a Woman/man.</p>
<p>Succes is subjective to everyone. To me it might be to go to NASA, to you it might be to make lot of money. Thus its very…umm…it differs between different people. Often it is about the mentality of the person. For example Success for Bin Laden is to kill as many people as possible!!! (this was again a joke).</p>
<p>What is success? </p>
<p>Not being this guy…</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-life/827066-asian-males-college.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-life/827066-asian-males-college.html</a></p>
<p>1.)making money
2.)having a solid social life
3.) getting married</p>
<p>these are general but are important aspects of life</p>
<p>some good existential questions here…I am interested to read what people post.</p>
<p>to the previous post just to reinforce the notion that sucess means different things to different people, none of those three things are in my top five.</p>
<p>To me, money, a social life, and love bring thoughts of Bret Easton’s Ellis’s book American Psycho. lol</p>
<p>There is a book by Shiv Khera,“You can Win”. People can learn about “success” there, how to lead a successful life!</p>
<p>I used to give a f<strong><em>; now i give a f</em></strong> less.</p>
<p>What do I think of success? It sucks, too much stress.</p>
<p>I have thought of this A LOT actually. So if you really are wondering about this, my post will be interesting.</p>
<p>Most people will answer happiness, comfort, money, status, or family</p>
<p>Let’s try to tackle one by one.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Happiness. This is probably the most answered, but yet the most contradicting. There have been many researches suggesting that society back-tracked in obtaining happiness over the years. Leisure time is much scarcer, and the pressure and stress from the environment are worse than ever. In fact, having thought of this for a while personally, it doesn’t make any sense that people will try to sacrifice happiness NOW for happiness LATER. Many people are willing to sacrifice their teens, 20s, and even 30s for their happy job, but what’s the point of being happy when you are that old when you weren’t happy during the time before it. In fact, preparing for the best colleges and the most high paying job are going against happiness in most cases, although it is true there are exceptions. So, is success really happiness? Then why are we going against that?</p></li>
<li><p>Comfort
This is rather similar to the 1st argument. It is true that you’ll be able to may be living a much lackadaisical life after you get a stable job. But again, comfort is usually obtained by getting a decent job, not getting the best job. In fact, when you reach a certain level, the “better” your job is, the busier you’ll be. So, why does everyone crave these jobs?</p></li>
<li><p>Status
Many probably want high social status. This is quite reasonable if you have a certain reason for it. Without any reason other than the “looks”, you’re making a major mistake because you are more likely to carry on more responsibility.</p></li>
<li><p>Money
Woah. Here’s the big one. Money. Why do you guys want to be rich anyways? Personally, I gave up on wanting to be a millionaire. Why? Because you’re just going to work extremely hard until you start getting some bucks when you’re in the 40s, and after that you won’t have much places to spend those bucks. When you are in your 40s, do you really have to buy a lot of fancy stuff? I don’t think so. So, you basically wasted your most lively years for money you don’t really need. Just lighten your greed and try to earn just enough money.</p></li>
<li><p>Family
This one is legit. I’ll admit. If this is your reason, you have a point. However, I don’t consider good family relations a success. Why? Family is just natural interaction. Every organism reproduce. So, taking care of the family is a natural thing. So, I don’t consider good family life a “success,” per se.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>So, then. What is success?
For me, success is progress. That’s the only way we can justify people working their buts off. People work hard to improve, not necessarily improving oneself, but to improve the whole society, whether intentionally or not. That’s what I want to do: progress. I want to aid the society much as I can to take a step forward, and personally, I’ll do that with science. Why would I only care about myself if I’ll just be gone when I’m dead? How about doing something that affects beyond my life and make a contribution to society’s progress. Do you think Obama is president because he wanted any of the 5 mentioned above? No! He’s president because he’s trying to do something for USA. Being president SUCKS for personal life.</p>
<p>Sorry for my long long essay if you will. I had to write this because I really thought about this for a long time. I truly hope you guys think about the same question because it is an important question.</p>
<p>P.S. I’m still a high school student applying to college now. Hopefully, my view doesn’t become tainted by the reality.</p>
<p>@Maruham…You forgot “Health”!!!</p>
<p>Ah. Health, of course.
But you can always take care of your health while doing everything else.</p>
<p>By the way, my mom says that my idea is so immature and childish and will change when I have to get a job.
I really really hope this goal in life doesn’t change.</p>
<p>We all hope so!</p>
<p>@east89 - Eminem ftw</p>