What is it that makes people successful?

So I was thinking about success. It something that's hard to quantify, and is pretty subjective for different people and situations.

Personally I attribute my own success to my self confidence and natural intelligence. But I would very much like to know:

1)What is it that makes you successful (or a failure)?
2)What do you think makes others successful (or failures)?
3)What you think success is?

1. One thing that makes me successful is that I spend no time on irrelevant matters and I always effectively Tackle through my big problems and shield myself from lesser problems. Also I never allow anyone to intervene between me and my goals, not even my family, which is why some people say I might be cold, but then again nobody is gonna wake up 5 in the morning for me and earn my money for me.

2. I don't know how others become successful, I might say that some have similar methods like mine or maybe they have people by them who they can blindly trust, some believe in team effort where others believe being the lone wolf makes them successful. I can definitely say how others are complete failures is because they lack the resolve they need to push through the trials of becoming successful, and also their motives behind their actions reflects on their results of being successful or not, so I cannot much for others.

3. I think success is when a person has decided to follow a path where they wish not to be manipulated anymore and do what they see is fit for their lifestyle and happiness. That word is a very serious word, it's a word that shines so brightly because that word when applied to a person has a much more meaning to it. Success shows what a huge difference between a winner and a loser looks like, it does not choose sides, rather it chooses the person who has the strongest will to create their own paths.

What I am trying to say is, that Success is made for the will of winners.

I find that most people who go the lone wolf route overdo it and end up failing miserably, and often lose friends in the process. There are few people who can do it and not come off as a complete asshat, but they tend to have a natural tendency to work on their own, rather then pushing themselves to be independent.

And what exactly to you mean by 'motives reflect their results'? What sort of motives, and how do they affect the result?



Skipping over the metaphors, I agree with your general point, that people tend to be either big success' or complete failures, and it all depends on who really wants the future they have envisioned the most. Higuchi from the hentai series 'Transformed into a busty blonde' is a good example of this, at least in the first chapter. He works incredibly hard to achieve his dream.

Forgive me if I have not made that clear, but what I mean is that many people who have all the right reasons to become successful will have good results in the end.

Depending on the definition of success, a good example I can think of is my brother's (and mine I guess) friend. He just has so much raw talent. He will be graduating college this year and Microsoft has already offered him a 6 figure programming job. What he excels at is breaking down how something works and optimizing it; making it better. He came over our house one day and we were all briefly getting back into the .hack//ENEMY card game (it's silly), and he had never played before. We explained the basic rules to him and he took one of my not-so-good decks that he liked the concept of and made it at least 3 times better just like that. The reason Microsoft offered him a job is because they proposed some kind of situation and asked applicants to demonstrate how they would solve it. His solution was in the top 5%. It's not like he's a genius, he's just really, really good at whatever he puts his mind to.

For me, success is just achieving your goals. Recently, something happened to me that really effed up my plans for the next year and it sucks. I feel like I failed myself. However, everyone is like "What? You didn't fail anything! You should be happy, blah blah" And I suppose they're right to a certain extent because I'm fine, but deep down it still feels sucky.

What you have is called "Desire to be the best", and that feeling you have will push you up above the clouds.

But what exactly are the 'right' reasons? Do you mean something like morally right, doing something to try to help people? Or do you mean reasons which are true to what the person want, like aiming for a job they'll enjoy, rather than one they'll hate just for the pay? Or something else?



I know that feeling. The feeling where even though you're the top of the class, you feel like you should have done better on the exam. It was especially bad for me, because my confidence meant that everyone else also expected me be perfect, so they teased me (in a friendly way, not in a bullying sort of way). That wasn't so bad, but the people who said, 'But you're still top of the class', or 'you still got an A*' who kind of pissed me off.

I didn't want to be measured against my classmates, I wanted to be measured against the best in the nation! And those initial failures, I suppose, pushed me to try harder for my success, and meant that I did get to the point where I was among the top in the nation.

So I guess the best advice I can give is let the hate flow through you, and propel you to even greater heights!

It's just so they can be happy .. I believe that people are aiming for happiness .. and success brings them that happiness.

But people can be happy while still not being something most people would call 'successful'. They can take drugs, party every night, and end up dieing young from alcohol poisoning, but still have happiness. Maybe not the long term feeling of content type of happiness that the people who are successful in the classic way, but a 'living in the moment' sort of exhilarating happiness.

Would you say these people are successful, if that was essentially their goal in life? I wouldn't. The difference between success and happiness is not easy to quantify, but I would say somebody has to try to be the best that they can be in their circumstances to qualify as a 'successful' person.

Actually I do it mean it in a classical way, your goal is to be happy, which means giving effort to obtain that lifestyle which lets you do so, and by doing that it also means you won't go back to that unhappy times easily.

Happiness can be obtained through different means, yes I agree, but the difference between happiness from success and happiness from drugs is that one lasts a few moments where the other lasts a lifetime. People who use drugs just to be happy shortly know very well that what they are doing isn't really obtaining happiness, but ignoring the costs of true success and only feeding off of the illusion of it.

True success is never easy, but once you obtain that success you have been longing for, then the feeling is so great, so indescribable, so huge, that only then will you know what true success is.

My belief is that success is relative to the person you're asking. One person's success can be another person's failure. Some people work best with other familiar faces, some work best as a lone wolf, and others still have a mix of both. Me personally, I don't pay much attention to personal success goals for a "distant future". I don't like planning more than a week or two in advance, or looking at prospects years ahead of me. It's like weather forecasts; the further ahead you try to predict, the less accurate it typically gets.

I figure this may be rather controversial.

First, I hold "personal success" as different from "economical success".

Personal success, I believe is something that can be greatly defined as something determined by effort. Something Like getting better at drawing, or better at typing. Something involving self improvement. But I believe it to sometimes rely more on luck at times, like the ability to sing or ability to spot things really far away, which hinges considerable on genes your born with. (I, for instance, may never be able to sing.) Singing can be refined, but the amount of effort for all isn't equal, some have it easier than others, their luck in life to be born with.

Economical success, success in the world, I believe it greatly falls under luck. Luck enough to encounter those right teachers, luck enough to be considered for that job positions, luck enough to meet the right people who are a positive influence, ect. Though, I believe through conscious effort, that you can raise your odds, but I view most economical success, to be a sort of gamble. Skills, abilities, inheritance (monetary and physical) can increase (or decrease) the chance of success depending on what choices you pursue, but it really still falls under enough luck to meet the right people.

If I use a personal example, I've thrown my future in the hands of those who were supposed to help me, counselors and teachers, for them to let me fall through the cracks and fail. Through my own effort to find better people to entrust myself too, I may have been able to avoided failure in that regard, but I gave up after awhile.

Another example, for what I really want to do (Game design), my easiest, and possibly only option, at this point, is a private 4 year college. But they want a 96k+ loan (70 after grant/financial aid) out of me with 10 years to pay it back (with not a penny to my name). I can jump towards this opportunity, on the bet (hope) that I will find a job afterwards, with financial security, to help me out of the debt, but no one knows what the future holds. No one knows what the future market will be, and we have been on a decline for awhile, especially games that are leading up to another 80's crash at this rate. Jumping into this kind of debt is a huge gamble. It's something I "want to do" but may not be something I can afford to do because of the position I was born into and because the encounters I met, who were supposed to but did not help my social standings.

Another(2) example, despite the fact that we want to consider the world tolerant, it's not, there are many people who discriminated against for race/skin color/nationality, it's something that people have no control over. This includes work environments. All you can do is hope that the environment you enter doesn't hold such people, if it is, you can look for another one, but odds of finding other environments are not as high as they were 20 years ago. It's much harder to find employment now than it once was, for instance. (California, 4th(last time I checked 3rd) highest unemployment in the US, the area I reside in California, has one of the highest unemployment rates of all California, 12-13%.)

Yes through effort, after college, I can increase the chance of finding good stable jobs through persistence and will power, but it's still a game of luck, and I'm a pessimist whose never had odds working in my favor. I'm a coward in regards to gambling, and I may very much be suffering from depression. I'm procrastinating seeing a doctor about this though... None the less, my perception of success greatly hinges on ones "luck in life", for we are not born in equal abilities and standings. (Being born, healthy at that, is a product of luck hahaha.)

A very interesting interpretation. I very much agree with your idea of people having natural abilities. I like to use an example of the table-top role-playing game 'Runequest'. Your intelligence is a fixed stat, which will grant you a bonus to the base skills of some abilities. However, if other characters with a lower base skill practice/train that stat more than you, they will quickly surpass you.

On the other hand, I think you put slightly too much weight on luck. I think determination and self-awareness are also significant factors. And when I say self-awareness, I mean knowing what you're good/bad at, and knowing which things about yourself you'll need to improve/change in order to succeed in your goal.



Well that certainly sounds like a happy life. I would probably enjoy that sort of life too. But would I feel successful based on that alone? I don't think I would. I just wouldn't get the same feeling of pride and accomplishment that comes with things like good exam results or solving really tricky problems. Is that just me?

Money, Power, and Influence. When the chips are down, this is was success really is in all of our hearts.

Whabuaubaksbasm

OT: Hard work and talent

This may sound very vague, and that is because I intended it to be so. I think one is successful as long as he or she think they are. So in regards to your three questions:

1. The fact that I think I am successful makes me successful.

2. Those who think they are successful are successful.

3. Success is the fact of reaching the mindset of being successful.

So essentially what you're saying is that success doesn't exist. It is just a product of our emotions and views of ourselfs. Which makes your answers border on being tautologies, not that I mind.

Well, I think that view is definitely applicable to what has been referred to as personal success. Less so for 'economic success', as even if somebody owned no money or material possessions, considering themselves economically successful would not make them economically successful. And it is completely inapplicable to success in terms of achieving a goal. Regardless of what you believe, you have either reached that goal or you haven't.

1)What is it that makes you successful (or a failure)?
I own my own house and property. I never had to ask for anyone help or money since i do want i have to so i can be what i am. There nothing wrong with help when you have to. My father lend me some money to buy my house and i paid him back within a month. Money and wealth doesn't make you a success, but the will and strive of doing it for yourself does. Even if your working at Taco bell and your trying to make a better life and working hard to do better then that success to me.

2)What do you think makes others successful (or failures)?
Drive. Learning shit. Striving to be better. I think most failures are honest at the attempt to succeed. Failing is good. You need failures in your life to make you want the prize better. My problem is more people are lacking foresight and depending on a hobby to secede and not the planing of will this be easy enough for a career or just to be getting paid. My job is shooting images for and about people, things, ideas. It's a hard fucking life since i might not have a gig for months. Unless you hustle you never get paid. Same with other arts, liberal art majors and Computer Science people. Unless you hustle for that slim buck... your behind the ball. Why would some tech company pay you more then the Chinese and Indian dude who gladly work for cheaper. Plan out the pro/cons and the hustle to get a job before you just spend your or mommy money on a useless degree.

3)What you think success is?
If you can pay your bills, your kids are happy and not starving and you can put some money away for that happiness then your seceded. You being rich does mean your happy. Money without happiness is a lonely existence.

My ability to burp on command.
failure; lack of, see: above



Effort, patience and knowledge.
failure; lack of, see: above



[Silly typo, mr/ms. OP]
Sustained, steady, and large cash flow.