Success Was Never Enough For Me
A realization journey — a lesson in success
An Unusual Realization
On March 18, a cold wind roused me from a brief night’s rest. I had sensed something different — something strange that overwhelmed me that frigid morning. I could swear it had nothing to do with my test that evening. I had practiced to a reasonable extent, or so I thought. I was in a different realization that I’d never experienced.
On that historic evening, I made my way shuffling along the paving stones that formed a lonesome walkway into an old lecture hall, where a throng of students hurried to be tested as to their intelligence in Engineering applications. I watched as test slips were passed willy-nilly by the invigilators. The foul stench of uncertainties written on our faces.
Amidst rising tensions, I managed to muster a final act of unshakable confidence. But when a test slip landed on my table, I swallowed an unbearable show of indignity, knowing that I’d failed the course. Too bad shame was what became of me.
Few months prior, things were much different at least, and circumstances used to be favorable. I mean, I had passed my last semester’s exams in one of the most prestigious universities in my country. So, you’d understand that graduating with a great CGPA meant a great deal to me.
However, what seemed to be a motivating factor had exacerbated pride in my abilities. A false sense of confidence clouded my focus, believing that grades were easy to maneuver. But it wasn’t as I wished. Yes, the painful realization hit me on the 18th of March.
Part of the realization is that our wins can make us lose sight of our future goals. Another part of the realization is that my definition of success is flawed.
As Greg McKeown, Author of “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less,” explains it at the World Economic Forum:
“Success can be a catalyst of failure.”
The Enigma of Success
I’d reckoned that success is a feeling we, humans, deeply associate with favorable circumstances; a feeling our society has conjured to complicate the essence of learning. To be successful, as Wikipedia posits, one must meet a defined range of expectations.
Months ago, I was in the company of my contemporaries and having a small chit-chat about the stress of University life. A certain guy remained silent as we mourned our ordeals. Expressions hard to decipher flashed on his countenance. Out of nowhere, he offered to share one or two humble options on how we could cope with the expectations of school life.
“The institution teaches us everything but one thing in life; it is purpose. Exert yourselves in a purpose over anything in life.” His words hung still as our fragile minds struggled to understand his intent. He continues with a quote I’d heard somewhere before, “Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient tomorrow.”
True to his words, success can be a catalyst for failure when you stop learning, when you stop creating. And that was what happened to a famous successful company many years ago.
On the 5th of May 2000, a mobile phone factory — one of the pioneers of its kind — was opened in Komárom, Hungary. Excelled also as the first company to create a cellular network in the world, Nokia proved to be the global leader in mobile phones from 1998 to 2012.
The company was at the height of success, but unfortunately, the overreaching ambition of humans and the need to rest on our laurels proved to be a costly mistake for Nokia. The same is true for many today.
Overreaching ambition can, just like complacency, as well make you lose sight of your purpose. Too often, we rely on the expectations of the past to work for the present. With complacency, we lose the desire to learn. We fail to remember that true success isn’t something that can be accomplished; it is something that you create. And it needs to align with a greater purpose, not push said purpose.
Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient tomorrow.
Without a purpose in life, the road to success and failure appears the same. Purpose builds a crest in anticipation; it brings the excitement to learn, unlearn and relearn values as a deep student. It relives the words of Confucius when he said, “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”
Navigating Your Way to Purpose
We live in critical conditions that get harder to live by every day. The desire to live weans every moment. And you may have felt that you have lost your identity. If so, you are not alone.
But it doesn’t matter how much negative energy fuels the spirit of this world, how much life weighs you down, or how much success you have accumulated. “It is the amount of positive vibration you have radiated in life that matters,” argues Amit Ray.
It has been said that “the two most important days of a man’s life are the day on which he was born and the day on which he discovers why he was born.”
Unlike success, purpose is not a destination; it is a way of life. Purpose is the quest to find real meaning in life. It is the Way. The Truth. The Life.
Imagine you are walking in a vast desert. You are disoriented because the landscape keeps changing as sand blows in different directions. You are lost. How would you get directions?
In the middle of a desert, having something to guide you is valuable amidst harsh conditions, especially as strong winds blow the sand in varied directions. Your best bet lies in your ability to look to the heavens — the sun, the stars, and the moon — to navigate your way out of the desert.
Yes, the world likens itself to desert-like conditions; it is challenging, violent, and filled with anxiety. Navigating your way to purpose is not looking for answers from human sources, but looking for ways to be helpful, valuable, and carve your name on peoples’ hearts. As Albert Einstein notes, “Try not to become a man of success. Rather, a man of value.”
Where success dabbles your feet in the mud of certainty and predictability, purpose builds a cliff that elicits a crest in anticipation. Where success is riddled with occasional settings of victory, purpose gives you a joy that never ends. Purpose helps you see challenges as a meaningful part of your life. Hence, it helps you adjust to changing circumstances, and in effect, make you wiser in your endeavors.
Final Words
Everyone is so busy looking straight ahead, they don’t look up. Perhaps, sometimes, you need to hit a realization yourself of what you are, what you want to become, and what it means for you. Finding meaning in yourself and your goal is the first step in pursuing happiness.
The university, the society, and your parents may have a defined expectation of success inculcated in you. But it doesn’t change the validity of this known fact: Success is never, can never, and will never be enough for us.