Does What you Have or Do make you Successful? Part 3 in the Secret of Success series

Along with most everyone, you want to be more successful. Yet success means different things to different people. The old adage suggests success is fame and fortune, and fame can indeed be seen as success.

It's even been speculated that the man who vandalised Michelangelo's Pietà statue in 1972 saw notoriety as fame. He's spent some time in a mental hospital!

Some see success in athletic or academic prowess, others in political or economic power. Success in carnal pursuits can be very tempting while beauty is also alluring.

It seems that there are quite a few definitions. When I was young, I wanted to change my life by discovering how to influence people. Guess that's why I now write auspicious articles like these on the Secret of Success.

Is Success What You Have?
Some people find success in possessions, western society suggests that accumulating money and toys gives you success. Many men work their butt off to provide a high standard of living for their spouses and kids. But find in their forties that they've missed their kids growing up, their spouses are unhappy and, if they're honest with themselves, so are they.

As Emile Henry Gauvreau delightfully said, they're part of that strange race of people aptly described as spending their lives doing things they detest to make money they don't want to buy things they don't need to impress people they dislike.

It seems to be true that money can't buy you happiness, yet success includes happiness for most people. Which suggests what you have does not make you successful.

Is Success What You Do?
If the secret of success is not what you have, then it must be what you do, right? Lots of people find success in their profession: businessmen, athletes, social workers, priests, etc.

But since you're reading this article, presumably what you do has not brought you real success. To change what you're doing, what are your options? There seem to be only three alternatives:

a) Work harder
b) Do it differently
c) Do something else

Many people have tried working harder, and whilst it brings progress, it's certainly not the secret of success. You may have already tried this route.

You've probably also tried doing things differently, and found that doesn't really change your life either.

So is doing something else the secret of success? Whilst you may not have achieved real success by doing something else, this doesn't mean someone else may not have achieved real success by doing this. Almost everybody is NOT doing the same as you, so virtually everyone is doing something else! Yet since only some of them have real success, and many don't, then doing something else can NOT be the real secret to success. They'd all have real success if it were!

The Secret of Success?
The real key to success, therefore, is neither what you have, nor what you do. So what is it? Give this crucial question plenty of reflection. We'll look at the answer in the next article in this Secret of Success series.

© Copyright worldwide Cris Baker, www.LifeStrategies.net All rights reserved. Republishing welcomed under Creative Commons noncommercial no derivatives license preserving all links intact, so please +1 and share this widely!

Food for Thought
"Our lives improve only when we take chances - and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves."

- Walter Anderson 1885-1862, German ethnologist, University Professor, author