Success is a matter of age.
At 6, success is being able to obey mum and dad for a couple of months before Christmas and obtain that red bicycle you have seen!
At 14 is finding the right way to convince your parents that, although you are only a teenager, you can go to the concert with your BFF next Sanday evening: using the right words, logically, without crying, negotiating, as every adult does, issues like money, transports, time... and at the end make your parents push your plan through.
At 17 is capitalising on many years of hard work at the gym and catch your coveted classmate's attention.
At 18 is obtaining excellent marks at the A level exams and gain an offer from Oxford.
At 24 is a well-payed job.
At 30 is, maybe, being recognised as the very best in your field.
At 33 is being able to buy the house of your dream and start a family.
At 40 is, sometimes, winning a professional prize and progress in your career.
At 55 success is having the opportunity to see your kids gaining a place at Oxford.
At 65 is having the possibility of retiring tranquilly, with enough money and health for enjoying time with some excellent friends and the companion of your life.
At 70 is becoming grandparents.
And after that? For my granny, who died at 98, success was having all her grandchildren gathered around her coffin the day of her funeral. And so it was.
To be honest, I believe that success is everything makes you happy and only the right balance of private and professional achievements could bring happiness. Otherwise, every success is limping.
Sounds like something very similar to perfection... being the very best in your field, money, professional prizes and career, house of your dreams...
ReplyDeleteas far as I'm concerned, success is happiness. no matter what it may mean, no matter how old you are, no matter what people think it should be like.
success is also being loved and respecetd by your dear ones and your friends... being missed when you're not there, being remembered more for the person you were than for the things you've done.
my mom has no Oxford degree (actually, she has no degree at all...), she has worked only for a short period of time,and I guess she had no excellent marks at school. in my opinion, she's one of the most successful people I know: she's loved and respected by anyone, she's frequently asked for her opinion or support by friends and relatives and she'll be greatly missed when she's gone.
in comparison to this, I'd better happily throw my eccellent marks and degree out of the window..
Every age brings a different idea of life, and success is only a part of it. I have explained my idea in the last three lines.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, it was only a homework...
PS: perhaps, the key is to be recognized, as your mother is.