Success : Its About Building a Better Us

Success and happiness are very much related to one another but not necessary a pre-requisite of each other. Success although every living soul yearns, prays and asks for it could not guarantee happiness. We have heard or read stories about how successful people lived in frustration, seclusion, depression and loneliness. Success if not properly handled could drive someone to total destruction. Success without proper education and discipline could lead to insanity. However, in order for us to achieve happiness we need to have a sense of success. Therefore it is the aim of this book to explore and develop the diagnostic approach to understand the basic philosophy of success and happiness and understand the methods in getting there.

Success is not strange to anyone’s vocabulary. Success maybe commonly defined as “the ability to achieve what we want and set out to do”. But how someone perceives and interprets success varies. Some may measure success by the materials they own such as the cars that they drive, the house that they live in and the real estates that they own. Some may measure success by the success of their children. Some may measure success by the amount of money they have in their bank accounts. Measuring success through merely worldly possessions is inevitable but a lot of times quite dangerous, because there is no end to it. You will continue to work until you drop.
Success is about satisfying your aspirations. Success is about reaching for the stars and knowing for a fact that the process of reaching for the stars and the journey of building your dreams has made you the best that you can be. More importantly, success is when you know when to stop and saying to your self “I have made it!!!” Contrary, success is not about being better than the person next door. Success is about building a better us.

Success is often times taken lightly and sometimes being ridiculed. Although success is an interesting subject to discuss which could garner a lot of interest when taken on the academic forum but we naturally shy away from discussing success in its true sense because success has its pre-requisites and there is always a price to pay for success.

Note : This article was extracted from my book "Success, Happiness and Performance : They are Within Our Control" published in 2007 by Pekan Ilmu Publications.

What Do I Really Want?

More than twenty years ago in the 80’s, when I was pursuing my degree in Computer Science in the United States, I saw a commercial on TV that said something like, “Be the best that you can be” about encouraging teenagers to get enlisted into the Army. The commercial basically promotes the vast career possibilities to be pursued by aspiring teenagers. Although it has been decades since I last saw the commercial but those very words had some profound effects as to how I would see myself from then on. Consciously, I began asking myself what and who do I want to be? Am I on the right path of being that person I want to be? Subconsciously, I began to search for the answers.

At the tender age of 20’s I began on a personal voyage to find the answers to my daunting questions. I might not have lost sleep over it. I might not have chosen the life of a hermit to look for the answers. Nevertheless, I was looking for answers that I believe would give me a sense of purpose in living. I was looking for answers that would give me a sense of direction. I sought answers that would give me a sense of self-esteem and self-actualization. I wanted answers that would help me to make the right mould and continue to churn the right product.

Of course, I do realize that making the right product is just part of the search. I need to first of all understand whether or not I was clearing the right jungle. I need to know whether or not I was climbing the right wall. At this point, I may not want to deliberate on this matter because it is quite a complex issue to elaborate. For the sake of simplicity lets just leave those things as they are and focus on the issues of “what do I want from life?”

It was not until sometime in 1995 when a friend who was in the insurance business invited me to deliver a lecture to a group of insurance agents about the meaning of commitments for excellence. I was very comfortable with the invitation because lecturing has always been my cup of tea. After being a lecturer for seven years at a local university, lecturing comes naturally to me. But then again, this was different. My audiences were aspiring individuals seeking some form of an inspiration to burn their desire, reasons that could drive them to scale greater heights of achievements and who wanted to go out there and produce immediate results. They did not need concepts. They were not looking for theories. They were not looking for some textbook definitions or explanations. They were not going to listen to me so that they could pass some examinations. This was not an academic exercise. This was real life! While I was trying to gather my thoughts to decide on what to talk about, a familiar question that was once playing like an old tune of yesteryears came humming into my mind … “what do I want and who do I want to be?” That was when the twists and turns started to unfold. The pieces of the jigsaw puzzle started to come together. And with a sigh of revelation I realized that we only need two things that could unravel the whole enigma. And those two things are no other than SUCCESS AND HAPPINESS.

Note : This article was taken from my book "Success, Happiness and Performance : They are within our control" which was published in 2007 by Pekan Ilmu Publications.