It's amazing to know people have different definitions of success. Some consider the accumulation of wealth as success, while others believe fulfilling of purpose and staying healthy is success. However, to judge if an individual failed or succeeded, one has to understand what success is in the general term.
the ability to reach your goals in life, whatever those goals may be.
In a simpler form, success is reaching your goal and failure is the inability to reach your goal. So, we'll be focused on why people don't achieve their goals irrespective of what those goals may be.
Giving Up and Laziness
One very reason why people fail to achieve their goal is -giving up too early. People are quick to refrain from whatever takes away their comfort. Hard Work is stressful, only a few people break through and remain when things get hard. People want the easy way and most often, luck and success aren't found in the simple things. People mostly give up at the edge of their breakthrough, because it's the point when things go sour and people seem to lose hope. It's at this stage that people start to withdraw leaving behind a few who break through.
Fear Of Failure
Most people want to play the safe game, just a few take the risk. Past experiences and stories of failures from people who had followed a certain path in the past that yielded no fruit seems to discourage a lot of people. People dread the thought of failure, therefore choosing a path that is regular and has higher chances of success with low output than the path rarely trail.
Having No Knowledge of what we want
Having no vision or goal is a definition of a man who's confused. Unfortunately, There are many people today who don't know what they want, they accept every choice given to them. They're like leaves wavered by the winds. These sets of people never attain success because they mostly don't know what they want. Success starts by having a vision, knowing where you're going and when you're there. The problem often starts with a wrong definition of success, some see success as having wealth, so they keep chasing wealth in whatever manner they're directed, some perceive success as being a perfectionist, a concept no human can attain. If one's definition of success is faulty, then it affects every of the journey he takes in search of success.
The thin line between success and failure is - Vision.