At what point are we successful?
On May 15, 2010, I graduated from Northwood University with my Bachelor degree with a double major in Advertising and Marketing, Management. I successfully completed my degree; something I have been working on for the past three years—or maybe you could argue—my whole life. Yes, I feel accomplished and proud, don’t get me wrong, but I feel far from successful like I thought I might feel at this point.
What is Success?
This led me to wonder what exactly “success” is and at what point have we reached success? As defined by the Webster dictionary, success is a favorable or desired outcome. As defined by humans and fate; we may not ever be successful in our own minds or have reached success in our lives.
Steve Medincea on Success
When I was in London, I visited a company called PRISM, an affiliate of JWT, a global advertising agency, one of the biggest in the world. Steve Medincea is the founder of PRISM and I had the honor of listening to him speak to our class and the ability to pick his brain on advertising, business, and success. Many students implied on the level of his success as they asked questions regarding how he reached this point. He showed gratification and honor that we felt that way about his accomplishments but he made a point to make it clear that he did not feelsuccessful. He had so much more on his “bucket list” that he needed to do before he even came close to consider himself successful.
In our eyes, Steve was at a level of success that we could only dream about. He founded a company in advertising with one of the largest companies in the world. He works and lives in one of the best cities we had ever been to. He had earned awards that we had only read about. He’s worked with companies that we study every day… And yet, he still does not yet consider himself successful.
Will Smith on Success
Will Smith was featured on Oprah shortly after I contemplated the theory and philosophy of success. I was inspired by many of his values and his philosophy on life. He mentioned how he is still stuck in the mindset of a poor man even after 20 years of financial success. Clearly, he does not see wealth as a sign of success. Later he touched on his beliefs of success by saying, “to be successful is to overcome death.” His philosophy of success is a level that many do not consider, including me. I have yet to truly understand this, but I have thought about it every day since, and how it impacts my views on success.
It is hard to say what will make me successful in my eyes throughout my life. Will my job define that? Will my family relationships define that? Will my experiences, knowledge, and network define that?
For me, it is a combination of all and the quality of my relationship with those things that will define success.
