What is meant by success? Is there an universal definition of success? Can we pin point, yes, reaching that particular milestone is called success?
For an animal, primary success is all about being alive: For a predator, success means achieving the daunting task of killing her prey for the next meal; for a prey, success is the manifestation of her ability to stay away from those killers on daily basis.
I think, the same principle applies to humans as well, at primary level: Winning the struggle for survival.
Requiring to meet the basic needs, humans look for a stable source of income that would help them remain alive -- physically. I would like to call it Primary Success because all species, including humans, must first ensure the survival before looking beyond.
And after achieving this primary success, one can think of achieving the next level. The next level of success, that we notice in animal kingdom, is the desire to dominate others. By domination, I mean reaching leadership position through muscle power like the owner of pride of lions, or by virtue of knowledge and experience like the leader of a herd of elephants.
Strikingly similar developments take place in human society also. Humans, consciously or subconsciously, try to dominate others within their area of influence: Some do it with money power, some with muscle power and a few with the power of knowledge.
This urge to dominate others is basically for fulfilling the need to be recognized and accepted, that one is better than the rest. Nature maintains its equilibrium by rewarding the performers and punishing the failures, and it happens with every form of life on planet earth.
Nothing wrong in getting ahead of others, however, sometime, this inbuilt desire to perform better - proving to be superior to others - and the quest for subsequent recognition: Success, makes humans step over the limits imposed by moral and ethical values that constitute the foundation of human civilization.
So success, any domain of life, in my opinion, basically translates to establishing oneself as the leader, who would protect his followers and inspire them to be successful at their own level of existence. Ultimately, success is all about reaching a higher level of excellence and influencing others' lives for making this world a better place.
And it can happen, only when you are in the spotlight! Do you agree?
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