There is only one definition of success-to be able to spend your life in your own way.

There is only one definition of success—to be able to spend your life in your own way.

 

“To be, or not to be: that is the question.” (Hamlet - Shakespeare), why would Shakespeare wanted to raise a question of death? The answer can be found in his literary work itself. The desire to die arises when one is not satisfied with his own condition. Everyone has his own desires and aspiration, every man or woman wants to lead his or her life in his or her own way. These desires to lead the life in own way are desires to be happy. As it is well said; ‘Success is a State of Mind’, a state that desires freedom. However, meaning of success can be different for different people, for some people it could be an economical success for others it could be self satisfaction. But, all these meanings lead to the ultimate truth, the desire for freedom.

                    

                A man who wants to be rich will not be called successful if he is not able to use his money in his own way. Think about a multimillionaire who’s all the money is in the bank and he has to take permission of the bank, every time he want to spend a dime. We call Steve Jobs of Apple or Lerry and Serge of Google as successful not only because they are rich but to the fact that they led their life in their own ways. Steve was suspended from school, but he led his life on his own terms and found Apple, a great company. Lerry and Serge went to Microsoft with a great idea, but Microsoft rejected the idea calling it foolish. But, these innovators went their own way to discover Google. The success comes with the freedom and in some sense success and freedom are synonymous.

 

             Freedom of thoughts and actions lead to a successful life. An entrepreneur will not be able to progress if his thoughts are bottlenecked. HHHHis desire for success is his desire for freedom. Moreover, on achieving the goal an entrepreneur will feel the same joy and freedom as he was feeling while progressing towards the goal. We may not call a saint or a small business man a successful person. But, if they are leading their life in their own terms, they will feel happy. And if someone feel happiness he is successful, the perception of the world can not change one’s state of mind.

 

             Although some people can claim that there is necessity to restrict freedom of people in some cases. For example society will not agree to a control of major community over a minority one. In this case the society is restricting the freedom of one community to ensure the freedom of other community. Here we are not concerned about success of individual but the success of whole society. A single group’s happiness can not represent the success of society.

 

            For all these reasons, we can define success as a metaphor for freedom. A life without any boundaries, a life where one can breadth in free sky represents success. As Albert Einstein famously quoted; “Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.”

 

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Nitin Guru