What is success?

Its a hard question to answer. For me would be to support my family and to provide a good grounding for my children to start adult life on both feet. I have an uncertain future I am selling my business and I will be out of a work until I find something to invest my money into.
 
Abstract I know but success is defined by the journey not by the goal :)

I has took 30 odd years to realise that, i.e. have something to aim for but don't be disappointed or overly satisfied should you fail or meet your goal.

More than anything though, define what your own goals are, don't be driven by what you think other people want you to do.

If you are content sat at him on the sofa then so be it, if on the other hand you want to be CEO of a FTSE 100 company, so be it.

I suspect both will be as content as the other - the trick is you need to understand who you are - but you learn than on the journey :)
 
Put it this way, my mom and dad were able to buy a house in Macclesfield, 3 bed with garden and garage on a scaffolders salary in the mid 80s and my mom stayed at home for the most part. These days i am probably earning twice my dads salary and struggle to get out of debt.

I won't be satisfied until my assets are making enough money to cover my monthly outgoings. Which is a long way away.
 
I had this thought a couple of months ago when I was watching a documentary about some tribe in Africa. As it followed them on their daily lives hunting and raiding Bees nests for Honey, it dawned on me that these people aren't even aware of the things that most people would consider required to have a successful life. Nice house, lots of money, retiring or whatever. To them, a successful life is probably just surviving from one year to the next.

Does your culture define your own personal meaning of success? I would imagine it has something to do with it. But for humanity as a whole...?

I still dont know the answer but I'm pretty sure that happiness has to be in there somewhere.
 
Call me vulgar but at the moment happiness is watching my business grow and grow, making money I didn't ever bothering thinking of before.

But also, happiness is going golfing with my mates, hanging with my cats, chatting to my mum or snuggling in on a Saturday morning with my lady.
 
regulus said:
Call me vulgar but at the moment happiness is watching my business grow and grow, making money I didn't ever bothering thinking of before.

But also, happiness is going golfing with my mates, hanging with my cats, chatting to my mum or snuggling in on a Saturday morning with my lady.
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far from vulgar, sounds brilliant!
 
Vinno said:
I had this thought a couple of months ago when I was watching a documentary about some tribe in Africa. As it followed them on their daily lives hunting and raiding Bees nests for Honey, it dawned on me that these people aren't even aware of the things that most people would consider required to have a successful life. Nice house, lots of money, retiring or whatever. To them, a successful life is probably just surviving from one year to the next.

Does your culture define your own personal meaning of success? I would imagine it has something to do with it. But for humanity as a whole...?

I still dont know the answer but I'm pretty sure that happiness has to be in there somewhere.
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Media defines most people's idea of what success is. People are bombarded by advertising everyday, telling them that they need to own this thing or that everyone is now doing this, why aren't you? Etc

I think by success what we really mean is feeling content but I'm not sure that most people will get that through material goods.

You could argue that the only real purpose to life is to reproduce, so perhaps family is the answer.
Or look at why so many people are religious, I personally don't believe but religion does fill a gap in peoples lives.
 
success is subjective - your views on being successful may be quite different to how society views it.

In business success for me is helping develop and mentor people that work for me. Watching them grow into roles and have opportunities to progress.

Personal life success is about being content with what I have. I'm able to support my wife enough that she was able to quit a job she hated and go part time, we still have the nice house (because we were "successful" in making money on previous properties) and we live to our means.

To society we're probably not viewed as successful - we don't have kids, we don't go on flashy holidays every year, we don't earn £100k+ each

But that's fine, we're happy and for us that's the most important.
 
cainer said:
this, too many people relate success purely to financial gain
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To me success is being able to retire at 55 (and switch to working when I want travel/live comfortably & spend more time with my family)

So far this is well on track and I may even leave my job before that (which I have worked at for 20 years) - but for me to be able to do that - I have worked hard at achieving financial targets every year ;) Call it being tight I suppose.

The difference between me and many people I know who earn decent money is.......I don't spend it on materialistic rubbish (new TV's, Audi A4's, tablets, new phone every 2 years) just so that I can keep up with my neighbours

And basically thats all it boils down to - so many people I know just buy a £10,000 car just because they think their car looks old compared to their neighbours - or their phone looks old on the table next to their mates Galaxy S5. So consequently every year I have invested quite a bit, and am now seeing returns from that enabling me to be able to stop work early.

I fail to see why the majority of people in the west get a 20 minute buzz from spending their money on plastic tat just because it has a higher res screen - or a better camera - but it's getting more noticeable in the UK as every year passes - people have to buy stuff without really needing it or having the money to afford it........ isn't that odd ?
 
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I want to enjoy life, but I also want to be able to do it. I want to earn around 20K + so I can live and not just scrape by.

Once I do that I am sorted.
  1. Get a better paying job
  2. Earn enough to buy the things I want
  3. Consider getting a girlfriend
  4. Make and complete a bucket list

After that, Relax, Relax, Relax. I have always wanted to see JApan and I suspect the 20K job goal there is mainly to get that goal obtained before anything else!!! :D

Oh well, back to my application forms :D:D
 
Vinno said:
I had this thought a couple of months ago when I was watching a documentary about some tribe in Africa. As it followed them on their daily lives hunting and raiding Bees nests for Honey, it dawned on me that these people aren't even aware of the things that most people would consider required to have a successful life. Nice house, lots of money, retiring or whatever. To them, a successful life is probably just surviving from one year to the next.
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I reckon they are also likely to be a lot happier than most people in the UK. Being outside, close to nature, getting exercise, having more downtime, not having to pay loads of bills.
 
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