The right kind of success

Someone once said, “The two hardest things to handle in life are failure and success.” I tend to agree with that.

We all know failure is hard enough to bear but success is neither an easy thing to handle either.

Look at MJ, the undisputed King of Pop, he had enormous success, but despite all the money and fame we learnt that actually deep within his person, he was quite a lonely and tortured soul. He passed away suddenly on 25 June 2009, aged just 50, with gigantic plans still unfulfilled.

Some people just dream a fantasy of success, others pursue it relentlessly.

Of course, all the so-called “secrets of success” will not work unless you concentrate and really work hard at it.

Most certainly, there will be a cost. And for those who have reached the top, let me ask you this, has it been really worth it?

Frankly, I don’t think that one can succeed without experiencing failure of some sorts at some point in one’s life. To succeed as the gurus tell us, we must dare to fail.

Laurence Shames puts it this way: “Success and failure. We think of them as opposites, but they're really not. They're companions - the hero and the sidekick.” An interesting observation, isn’t that?

There are of course many people who have tried to say what success is or is not.

But I like Ralph Waldo Emerson’s version best. He had said this quite plainly and I quote:

“To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded!” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Now, here’s something challenging to reflect on.

If you had your life to live over again, how differently would you have lived it?

While you ponder over it, let’s listen to this beautiful song entitled, “I have a dream,” a Nana Mouskouri’s version, music-video courtesy of "malurenn". TQ "malurenn" for a great presentation.