The Importance Of Success In Professional Life

Improved Essays
As a young boy happy people fascinated me. It was such my intrigue that one day I resulted in asking my father why they always seemed happy. Succinctly he replied, "They are happy because they are successful, just like you are." This was a clear and simple answer any young kid could understand; yet, that was not my case. The answer he provided me with was nothing close to what I expected, therefore, it made things even more confusing. What did success mean? Was it a disease? Had I contracted it as my father said I was "successful" too? These would be the questions that circled my mind on aftermath of this event. From this moment on my source of fascination shifted to a more concrete concept: success. Many years passed until I heard this word again, although this time I did had an idea of what it meant. This was achieving an expected outcome. I grew up defining success with this simple definition, until a couple of years ago when I finally understood success goes beyond this, and its definition varies according to its different types: personal success, academical success, and societal success. Yann Arthus-Bertrand once said, “To have success in your professional life is not so hard. …show more content…
To succeed as a man is more difficult.” This is perhaps why, in my opinion, personal success is the most important of successes. Humans grow up being told that in order to be successful, one must get married, have an important job, have a six digits salary, have two or three kids, own a big house, and even have a beautiful car - the apparent epitome of this seven digit word. However, this is not the case for everyone. To the poor heroin user in Mexico, success might mean stealing enough money to buy his next dose, while for the Colombian soldier, success might mean avoiding getting shot by the enemy forces to see his daughter’s smile once more. The definition of personal success isn’t a universal law. Precisely, this is the reason why it has the word personal in it. Personal success goes beyond getting what you want; it has a much deeper symbolical meaning. It means achieving one’s deepest desires, consequently, ultimate happiness. The American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson once gave a beautiful insight on personal success: To laugh often and much, To win respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty; To find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded. Emerson invites the reader to, as cliché as it sounds, enjoy the simple things in life, rather than living one that revolves around being better than others or indulging in materialistic things. Moreover, he argues that in order achieve personal success, one must help others, thus, reaching the conclusion that striving for personal success goes along with becoming a better human. Ashly Lorenzana once said, “If you are going to do something, strive to do it better than anyone else. Do it all the way. If you are going to half-ass it, why bother?” Much of the principles on which professional success are based upon are displayed on this quote. These

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In Lyn Cheney’s story “Students of Success,” the author shares with the key of being successful and happy. Also she describes that students avoid liberal arts and one of the most reason is because they believe that they will not be able to make a high salary. In other words, they are choosing money instead of the job that they are interested in. The narrator depicts that there are some problem to predict the skills which will be the most valuable in the future. Basically, to survive in the future students have to be good at comprehensive knowledge.…

    • 785 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In a lifetime, there are things that people all strive to be good or perfect at: school, jobs, relationships, etc.… There is always something in lives that people wish to be better at, so people take certain measures to improve at life: study more, put in extra hours at the job, see a counselor, or practice harder. In “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin” by Benjamin Franklin, he sets out to devise a plan of self-examination, resulting in self-correction. Trying to achieve moral perfection, he creates a chart listing thirteen virtues and their precepts as a guideline for his self-examination. Though Franklin's intentions were of good gesture, the plan he devised was flawed due to basic human nature, lack of emotion, and different interpretations…

    • 1444 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Success is often defined as the accomplishment of one’s goals or objectives. Most people measure life by their successes. Life is a game in which I am constantly measured by myself and others. When I was younger, I based my goals on the expectations of others. I felt enslaved by the goals that were set for me by my superiors – my parents, successful peers, and enthusiastic teachers and mentors.…

    • 548 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The definition of success has been widely used as a catalyst for people who are hungry for more in life. What exactly is the definition of success, and why is it such a desirable concept? Being successful consists of inheriting good character and morals in order to achieve your goal in life. Hard work and dedication are both instrumental when it comes to getting what you want.…

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Being successful in life is not always easy because of the different perspectives that success can be achieved. With many theories out there on success, it is hard to figure out what is needed to be done to gain success in everyone’s life since there are many different beliefs out there that can lead to it. In the book “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell, there are numerous theories that are covered with examples of successful people that clearly show how success can be done in not just one way but many others. The most known people that are considered to be successful are billionaires and celebrities who all have gained success in their life in their own diverse ways. A good set of successful people in the world today that I have chosen to talk…

    • 1768 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Success in a Modern Society How one defines “success” can varies drastically from one person to the next. Michael Sandel and Matthew B. Crawford both tackle the issue of “success” in their individual essays, especially focusing on extrinsic verse intrinsic value and questioning what are the real true joys of life. Sandel with his writing of “Markets and Morals” tackles the issue of how money plays its role in our society. He purposes the question of where as a society we should draw the line to how we value things in a market system. Sandel provides evidence through facts of all items and services one can buy and sell in our modern times.…

    • 1487 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What is the meaning of success? Success means different things to different people. One person thinks that success is becoming the CEO of a company while another thinks that success is living to ninety years old. In general, however, people achieve success when they accomplish their own life goals. Most people go about their lives making choices and acting in ways which will lead them to success.…

    • 1017 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Everyone has their own definition of success and a set of rules they abide by in order to achieve a goal. Life is a learning experience and each individual has a different level of what they believe is success. In the end, it is a genuine happiness, memories, and adventures that determine success in…

    • 773 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Success has powers that can take control of us in both positive and negative ways. Margaret Mead explains that success is great, it's the winning prize,but it can also affect us in many ways. She also explains that with being successful, we feel threatened by others who are more successful than us. Lastly, she says that Americans are confused with being successful and how we should react. I agree with Mead because success can come with positive outcomes,but it can also come with negative outcomes such as:/ No one cares how they get successful all they want is to get successful and how others envy others with different types of success.…

    • 587 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What makes one successful in life? Is it working hard your whole life, being well liked in your community, or is it just something in our heads leading us to believe we have to be perfect in life to be successful. No one is perfect, all anyone can do is try. Willy Lowman thought that because he was a “good” salesman and people knew him, that he would be remembered in a very big way. Willy’s thoughts on being successful were; his reputation, being attractive, and having some short of talent.…

    • 632 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What does success mean? Success can be defined as, “the gaining of wealth, respect, or fame”, according to Merriam-Webster dictionary. Everyone has different ideas on what success is and how to become successful. In this Essay I’ll be comparing how two authors think success is achieved. Paul Tough and Michael Lewis has completely different ideas on how success is achieved.…

    • 722 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The human species has, is, and will always be separated into two distinct categories: those who succeed, and those who fail. Why is this? Why isn’t everybody a success? Those denoted as failures will argue only the lucky succeed, or only the privileged prevail. Those failures will claim that their deficiencies are circumstantial; that they never had a chance, because they adopted their identities, as failures, at birth.…

    • 774 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Great Success Definition

    • 735 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Great Success Success is the lofty idea of accomplishing some type of task that can make someone feel extraordinary. Everyone can think back to a time where they experienced some success, whether it is closing a major business deal or as simple as helping someone out. The concept of success morphs from person to person, but most people can agree the dictionary definition misses the true essence, the idea of success evolves as a person does, and true success is related to morals. The definition of success and the average person’s perception of success can be very similar and slightly deceiving. The Webster’s definition of success is, the attainment of popularity or profit.…

    • 735 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Success comes in different forms Success is within the mind of the individual. A large portion of one’s life is spent working to be successful. Everyone is told throughout their childhood to work hard to become successful and make money, but success comes in many different forms. Everyone has different interpretations of what success means to them. For some, success is measured by social status and for others success is determined by happiness.…

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A sense of meaningfulness is moderately rewarding for me. I like feeling as if the work I am doing is for a purpose. However, it is not nearly as rewarding as actually progressing towards that purpose. Achievement is more important to me than opportunity. For me, the opportunity to do something meaningful is not nearly as fulfilling as progressing towards a meaningful purpose.…

    • 801 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays