Wealth is something a lot of people think as synonymous with success. The society has so warped the meaning of success that most people rate being successful to mean being rich or titled.
As a result, a successful lecturer is a professor, a successful businessman is a president or the chairman, board of directors of several companies, a successful politician is one who wins elections, a successful lawyer is a Senior advocate, and so on. Yet, successful men and women, according to the criteria with which society judge success, commit suicide, they have depressed relationships, they have health issues that money cannot treat, they have little or no charity in their hearts, and so on.
Is this how success should be qualified, by bank balance and prefixes before a name? Is the effect of a man's activities on his society not a proper means of evaluating success?
For what is the essence of wealth if it offers no assistance to those in need? What is the essence of knowledge if it cannot be shared and passed on to other persons? What is the essence of power if it does not protect and assist the people around you?
Success in life should mean more than titles, power and wealth. It should be about the impact of man in the lives of his fellow man. It should be about the legacy, we live behind in the lives of the men and women who we crossed paths with as we go about our daily activities and businesses.
If you loose your wealth today, what will you be remembered for? If you die tomorrow, what will be on your epitaph?
I read a story recently, I can't remember where or when now. The story tells of a small boy in a class who was dirty and sad. He never talked to anyone, his classmates had learnt to ignore him and he fared poorly in his school work. His new class teacher soon took note of him.
The teacher went into the boy's records and discovered that the boy used to be a brilliant, neat and friendly student until his mother died. His father didn't know what to do with him and so the boy withdrew into himself. The teacher took it upon herself to talk to the boy and encourage him.
On her birthday, as students brought the teacher lots of lovely gifts, the boy gave the woman an old bracelet and bottle of perfume that made the class titter in laughter. The woman thanked the boy, took the bracelet and wore it, then she sprayed the perfume on her person. Later that day, as school ended, the boy came to her shyly and told her she smelled like his mother.
Years passed, the boy left primary school and entered secondary school. He wrote to the teacher often and he said she was the best teacher he had ever had. When he gained admission into the University, he wrote the teacher and again said that she was the best teacher he had ever had. He soon graduated from medical school and was certified a medical doctor. In his letter to inform this primary school teacher of his taking the Hippocratic oath, he remain steadfast in his claim that she was his best teacher ever.
Several years later, he sent her a letter inviting her to his wedding, not as a guest but as his mother. She went to the wedding wearing the bracelet which he had told her belonged to his late mother.
That teacher probably never got to be the headmistress of the school. It is very possible that she is still being owed her pension but was she a successful teacher? Damn yes!
She took a boy lost in the darkness of depression and pain and directed him to light and when he shone, his light reached her and she shone also.
The above story is an example, for me, of what true success means. In Three Idiots, a classic Indian movie, there's this saying coined by the lead character; pursue excellence and success will follow you pants down. What does that say of the society's idea of success?
Success have been corrupted and now it is not a suitable means of rating people who have achieved much in their lives. For man has placed too much emphasis on what a man has, not on what he gives, what a man is worth, not what human lives are worth to him. It is sad indeed, isn't it.
We should begin to rethink our role in our communities, in our families, in our businesses. The richest man in the world is not the most successful man in the world. He may be successful in making money but that does not make him successful as a human being. The most successful man in the world is the man who leaves behind, people who do not remember him for his wealth but for the positive impact he had in their lives.
What does success mean to you? Are you successful? Do you seek excellence or true success in your life or do you seek the accolades of people?
Stay positive, uplift someone today, show love and stay steeming.
©warpedpoetic, 2018.