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So what makes someone a successful person?

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Wealth is not a measure of success.

Happiness is not a measure of success.

True success is to improve the human condition
 
rsbennett00 said:
In general, your message here is good but there is some middle ground.

I don't contribute to society (unless you mean paying taxes) but I'm not mooching either. I also refuse to have kids, I want my bloodline to die with me.
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There is definitely some middle ground. As I said in the last paragraph, circumstances differ - for example, if you're retired, society considers you "done" with your working life as a contribution to society. Nothing wrong with that!
 
BurnItDwn said:
Wealth is not a measure of success.

Happiness is not a measure of success.

True success is to improve the human condition
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Well, it depends on what metric you're measuring success. If your goal is to make a lot of money, then being wealthy is a great measure of success. I used to think that being financially-motivated was a bad thing (i.e. wanting to get & be rich) but I have several friends who are only motivated by money, but not in a bad way - it's just what happens to light their fire & doesn't mean they're addicted to money. I like playing with new gadgets & that's half my job at work - fixing them, buying them, setting them up, everything from computers to cell phones to TV players to whatever. So my views on that have changed a bit over time - while I don't think it's great to be in love with money, I don't think being motivated by money is a bad thing, either. A lot of doctors & dentists I know love the paycheck but not the job, and I appreciate that they do it when I break my arm or need my teeth cleaned or whatever, so there's that aspect too!

And as much as I hate to say it, I don't even know if true success is improving the human condition - a lot of us like to abuse our bodies with alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, late nights, unhealthy diets, etc., so how do you improve the condition of people who don't want to improve? We have access to fresh veggies & fruits year-round, yet we're all addicted to McDonalds, Pepsi, and Doritos. But that's not necessarily a bad thing, because enjoying a yummy treat is a form of improving the human condition, and having the technology to create things like Doritos in mass production is a pretty amazing thing.
 
The key to being successful is not having to ask ATOT to define it, as you are the embodiment of it already.

Sorry, squarecut, this is a status you shall never receive.
 
wabbitslayer said:
see sig
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As cliche as that may sound, it's true. I've worked for some extremely wealthy people who own personal jets, fleets of cars, etc. Part of the trouble is human nature: when you're starting out, you set your sights on "achieving success", but by the time you get it, that's your habit - chasing success, not enjoying it. That's why a lot of ultra-rich people get labeled as "enough is never enough" because they want more, more, more.

Which I don't necessarily think is a bad thing. Those people tend to grow their companies aggressively, create jobs, and put a lot of good products & services into the marketplace, and if everyone was laid-back or content with what they ended up with, we wouldn't have much progress, you know? Capitalism is a great system for motivating people because you can be as successful as you're willing to be by working hard (and smart) & not quitting in the face of adversity. If your success was capped, then where's the incentive to not just sit back & enjoy the amount of wealth that the government said you could have? Sounds kind of pathetic, but that's human nature...I mean, if I have a day off, I'm usually loafing around watching Netflix & eating food all day rather than doing anything productive, haha.
 
mirageracerx said:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/successful?s=t

The question should be, what is everyone's definition of success. which that definition states its the accomplishments of one's goals. Goals do not require to be moral but has often been associated with being good in nature.

My opinion, a successful person is someone striving for perfection but doesnt ever expect to get there.
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You know, I think this is one aspect of depression - a lot of people don't set any goals, so they're never working on or achieving anything that they've personally set out to do in their lives. Being actively engaged in a fun project, whether it's working on an education or building something in your backyard or contributing to SourceForge or whatever, makes life a bit more interesting. As a kid you're forced to go to school & do other activities, but as an adult you can choose where to put your free time, and I think a lot of people miss that jump into choosing things to do on their own that keep them happy, you know?
 
Success is the fulfillment of some goal. A successful person will feel he or she has fulfilled a satisfying number of his or her personal goals. That's really all there is to it.

When people comment on whether they see another as successful or not they're usually projecting their own personal goals on that person. Or maybe they understand that person's goals and are reflecting on that.
 
Kaido said:
There is definitely some middle ground. As I said in the last paragraph, circumstances differ - for example, if you're retired, society considers you "done" with your working life as a contribution to society. Nothing wrong with that!
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A lot of retired people, well at least some, make valuable contribution to the society
 
The wife just said the cat seems successful at laying down and he looks happy.

I guess you can extrapolate from there.
 
Exophase said:
Success is the fulfillment of some goal. A successful person will feel he or she has fulfilled a satisfying number of his or her personal goals. That's really all there is to it.

When people comment on whether they see another as successful or not they're usually projecting their own personal goals on that person. Or maybe they understand that person's goals and are reflecting on that.
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exophase, you win the thread
 
Success is what a person does with what he's been given in life. What personal, professional, social and spiritual distance they've traveled.

Bill Gates, hugely successful, his children, doubt it? Very low likelihood of being truly successful in life by my definition because everything they achieve professionally and personally will be handed to them. They CAN be happy.

Ted Bundy, truly unsuccessful. He was given an amazing person drive along with an extremely high intelligence yet he did nothing with it. His success as a psychopath wasn't even successful in my opinion. Manson was successful. Stalin too was successful.
 
being able to take my family on vacations and feed them regularly and healthily are my biggest benchmarks for success as of late.




I am happiest when I am around my family. The more time I can do that the more successful I am.


Ive done the individual thing and had /still have all the toys and such but at the end of the day I would never go back to when I worked 70+ hours a week traveling and missing out on the good stuff.
 
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