How do you define success?
Do you define it in terms of wealth? A well paid Job? A position of Authority? Power? Love? Family? Friends? or Popularity? maybe even fame?
My personal definition of success is simply to be happy. If you can be happy in your life no matter what your circumstances then I would regard you as successful, because you have succeeded where others haven't.
I don't regard wealth as an indicator of success. There are any number of ways one can come into money the majority of which do not involve you earning it - 'earning' money is a device, a mechanism used to convince others that money symbolises success. I say the majority as you can be born into money, you can win it, you can be given it, you can acquire it by proxy [e.g. your parents become rich and you do too via proxy], you can marry money or you could be awarded it as compensation for something wrongfully done against you. In none of these situations would I say the recipient 'earned' the money. You can work for your money, work encompassing a wide arrange of money making avenues. I would resolve that money in the majority of cases of people who have it, have not earned it. Only a few people who have money truly worked for it.
Even if you worked all your life or started a successful business, what have you really achieved? Business success and personal success are not necessarily the same thing. You can rise up to great business success and end up a cold miser with no real friends surrounded by people who seek to be rich via proxy. Nevertheless, so you have your well paid job and your position of power, what have you achieved with this great wealth? So you can buy anything you ever wanted, you even start buying things you never even knew you wanted. Does that make you happy though?
What about fame then? It is one of my favourite quotes to say "have you ever been alone in a crowded room?". In terms of Love and Family, if you want to be famous you have two real choices: find love before fame or find fame then find someone famous. I say this because as you grow in fame much too as you grow in fortune, there comes a point where meeting someone from a background other than your own becomes increasingly difficult. Once you become famous, you really are tied into finding love with someone else who is famous as finding someone who isn't is going to be one of the most difficult things to do. Logistically, going out in a small club or going out on dates will be hard due to the lack of privacy the public eye brings. More than that, fame accentuates personal attributes that were already present, namely paranoia. How will you know the person you meet isn't after you because you are famous or because they think you are rich - again we find the issue of money complicates things.
In terms of pairing with someone from your background that too seems rather difficult as the saying goes "celebrity couples hey, they never last" and this can be true for many reasons not least of all that your every move and action will be drawn apart and criticised, small fights will get blown out of proportion by the press and inevitably stress will take hold. The picture I am painting does seem rather bleak doesn't it?
I base my conclusions on what I see, and what I see I evaluate with an open mind. I have seen many people on TV and in Magazines, on reality TV Shows and the conclusions I draw are that Money does not make you happy - yes it can bring a smile to your face but smiles fade. Fame is ironic, you often end up incredibly lonely. Love is difficult enough as it is without adding the other pressures into the mix.
Of all the people I have seen not just there but in real life too, in many different situations and even been in a few of them myself, all this boils down to one thing for me - Happiness is hard to come by. As it is so hard to come by, if you achieve true happiness then you have achieved more than I.
One more thing before you reply or comment: you have nothing to prove to me or anyone else, you can argue against anything I said but I don't care what you say, the only person you have to convince is yourself so don't waste your time typing to me just ask yourself the question:
Are you happy?
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