I have been asking the question of “what success means to you?” to people around me and interestingly most of them related success with wealth. I personally think it has to be redefined and so this article.
Success ≠ money.
I have learnt in the recent times, that success can never be equated with the amount of money you have in your bank account. I have read enough news articles in the past headlined: “How winning the lottery makes you miserable?” and have seen unsuccessful/unhappy people who are rich. And I am sure that plenty of poor people are happy.
Success is subjective.
My friends keep saying that they want to be like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. To them I say, we all play different roles in the society and it would just be a crappy system if everyone just becomes like Elon Musk. So success has to be subjective. Only you can define what success means to you and keep in mind that it doesn’t necessarily have to look like someone else’s.
Progress is success.
‘Doing one thing at a time’ is so clichéd — it is just not right for people at a higher level who keep track of a huge number of things every day. Let’s just admit that it is hard for us to do just a thing in a day. But what we can do is:
- have a vision
- break that into doable chunks
- focus and try to get things done in a day, everyday!
Personally, I try to get better than what I was yesterday and with that I move forward. So for me making progress is success.
What should I be doing?
Do whatever is necessary: It is simple, do whatever is necessary. Things are supposed to be weird and it will be. Like there will be times when you are expected to do certain things/tasks, for which you’re not qualified. It is weird and it is just fine for you to go ahead and do whatever you can and is necessary.
Deadlines: It is really hard to do X in Y minutes, I agree. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have deadlines. It is super useful to have a deadline for a task(esp. for big ones). We all get used to it over time.
Ask!: When you actually start doing tasks you may get stuck. So whenever you face one, stop feeling bad about it. Get up and ask someone who you think can help you fix it. I get stuck and do this all the time. It has worked out for me well.
So hustle and get shit done!
