There are so many notions in our culture about what leads to 'success' or higher class status/income


but is it really more of a gamble of several things?

the things I hear implied the most is that successful people are that way because they 'work hard' or how smart they are or whether they 'want' to work,, but lets explore that

if success is a function of working hard, why are most of those at the bottom of the class totem pole the HARDEST working?

I challenge anyone to say that lifting garbage all day isnt hard work, or teaching grade school children, or cleaning up behind folks all day, or working in a kitchen preparing meals,,,yet few in our 'successful' class of citizens are garbagemen or grade school teachers, or maids, or cooks

so, no, people arent successful merely because of how 'hard' they work


if success is a function of being smart,, doesnt that conflict with the meritocracy concept, since 'smartness' isnt necessarily earned

should we favor the smart and hard working , over the equally or more hardworking not so smart? and if so, doesnt that create an environment where some will never really be able to rise and others will remain there because of their INATE ability as opposed to anything they really 'earned'?


so what about wanting to work? take into consideration that more than HALF of all openings are filled INTERNALLY (that means not advertised publicly but rather through NETWORKS and WORD OF MOUTH),

and add that to the fact that the economy is SET up to function best when at LEAST 5 percent are unemployed,,,

even those who may WANT to work have only half the chance of FINDING work as those who are already in a 'network' and a one in twenty chance that they just dont have a job available for them


,,,so what leads to success,

1. someone that wants to work AND
2. who is in the right network already OR in the right place at the right time
AND
3. who is willing to work hard or smart once numbers 1 and 2 are fulfilled



success doesnt come from some vacuum or from any individuals own merit alone,,,dont let anyone try to tell you different

Who is successful?
In general when we can fulfill our basic needs comfortably we are called successful.To fulfill our basic needs we need money.
The more we can earn money we will feel ourself more successful.
To earn money what can we do?
Here comes the talent and development of talent.
Only talent doesn't give success. Talent to be developed by hard work.
(We common people think money is the measure of succes but if we can have deep insight we will find mental satisfaction is more important. In my view only.)

Successful.. I guess most of my family is successful if having money is the definition, how did they become successful.

some through just plain hard work..
some through luck..
some by inheriting it..
Some by luck..

However out of these people I can really only think of two who i would class as successful as they have reached the end of their working careers and are happy with who they are and what they have done with their lives, they are surrounded by children and grandchildren who love them and are comfortable enough to travel and enjoy their time together..


But in reality what is success, I believe I am successful , but money has nothing to do with it, my life is a success because i am raising my children and enjoying my life, If I can afford to eat and have somewhere to sleep what else do I really need.

To be successful in income a person needs to have a college education or be in the right place at the right time.

My daughter has the education; but still was in the right place at the right time...AND she raised her hand when asked to be part of the beginning stages of an endeavor. She was working for a hospital as a clerk...a medium pay job. The hospital was going to be changing their computer program bottom up and wanted ideas from the different groups in the hospital. Angie raised her hand. Now she is a Senior Computer Consultant for a major company.

My oldest boy was going to start college for drafting/engineering. He said he wanted to design buildings. He met a girl...moved in with her and her dad. Her dad was a Master Electrician. He took Justin under his wings and now he's an Electrician/Supervisor at the company he works for.

I have a pretty decent job driving a school bus. The pay was top scale for drivers at 18 bucks/hour. But now all the schools around the country are taking a dive and we are loosing the shirts off of our backs. So I went back to school and got a CNA Certification. The top pay in that field is still only around 35,000; but I can do that AND still drive bus.

We talk about success being measured in happiness and thankfulness which is very true; but...you still have to be in a position to have something. How happy would you be if you had no house and had to struggle for your daily food and clothing? I would guess your views would change. Money "would" become your main focus just to survive. Personally, I try not to think about it too much. I'm a simple person who doesn't need too much to live. I usually don't buy something unless it serves an "as needed" purpose. I try to put my focus on God and letting him decide what is needed for my survival. I work hard and try to learn something new every day. My mom used to tell me "there's no grass going to grow under your feet!" And she was/is right

Success is an attitude. Raising kids into responsible adults to me, makes you a success. Material achievement has little to do with it.

Because of th situation I grew up in I started thinking about this topic way early. What success meant and what it took to get there. To me it kind of boiled down to having choices and people that my choices mattered too.

Survival didn't mean a crap if you were still alone when you finally made it where you felt safe.

Wealth, as money or things, didn't mean much more than working like a dog first to get it then acting like one to hang on to it.

Living just to have children seemed kind of selfish and stupid because if a child is even remotely healthy they are going to mature and move on with their lives.

Having a mate, especially a good one, can really boost a feeling of success but even that didn't mean much if they didn't think I was a success at it so my choices to be one took on a greater meaning. Then the unthinkable loss of a spouse kind of re-oriented the process to a wider scale and friends took on an enhanced importance.

Health was a big thing. If you are sick of in pain it did seem that enjoying anything was harder but not impossible. I have days where if I were totally alone the searing pain I am often in would drive me over the edge but because my life matters to others I find desire to keep going.

Last and probsbly most important is success is relative to the moment and the people involved. The old story about trowing starfish back in the ocean mattering to the ones that were illustrates one side but depending where a person is in their life saving a starfish isn't going to mean much if their kids are hungry or if they are old and frail and want help across the sand. So I have tried to apply a sense of timing which is hard thing sometimes to find perspective for oneself.

True sometimes success does seem unattainable but what I saw was that was rarely a constant if a person made a choice to take a big enough or unconventional enough risk.

This is the biological definition of success. Successful reproduction.
Thriving offspring!

Have you read Marx and Lenin?



There are many definitions of success. What makes someone feel
successful is as much related to how they define success as to
anything else.

There are many rich and powerful people who feel they are failures
many are even driven to extremes to try to overcome their feelings
of helplessness, mediocrity and inferiority even though they fit a
definition of being materially successful. This is a lot like "It's
A Wonderful Life".

But let's just take material success as the operating definition
as the example you give above speak to material success.

Material success is a function of working diligently and intelligently
directly towards becoming a material success. Defining as a goal
to be wealthy and powerful. Poor people work just as hard as rich
people but they are not successful at enriching themselves monetarily
because they are not doing things which reap large financial benefits.
Sometimes they simply do not have the intellectual capacity to do so
while other times they fail because of circumstances beyond their
control such as unscrupulous business partners, a problem of some
sort with their product, devastating health problems or some kind
of accident.

So there are no quick and simple answers to social inequality it
is a combination of so many factors. This is what Marx and Lenin
studied (among others). It is a subject of philosophy as well.
But it is no great mystery. This is why some say "Life is not fair".
Best we can do is to make the most out of our opportunities and set
goals which are good for us and do our best within our limitations.

I think that success depends on your own viewpoint.

I'm not interested in what the world thinks of me. By the world view, I'm not successful because I don't have a lot of money or own a lot of possessions. I've been married 3 times: 1st time to a closet homosexual who deserted us, 2nd time a widow, 3rd time to a foreigner who left during a mid-life crisis - none of them worked out.

By my viewpoint, I am successful because I've managed to raise 8 decent human beings on my own, with little or no help financially, emotionally or spiritually from their fathers. I've also lived in different places in the USA and Europe, am a published writer, lyricist and photographer. I don't have a lot of possessions, but what I do have, I own (not in debt up to my ears to have what the Jone's have).

But when it comes right down to it, what is most important to me is what G-d thinks of me and I will know how successful I have been once I pass on to the afterlife.