Defining Success

these are some of my favorite advice adoptations from remarkably accomplished people.. they're a source of inspiration and mentorship, it is a good thing that they were able to share their ways on how they were able to achieve their success in life. if you want a good compilation of the advices of these remarkable people, look for the book Success edited by: J. Pincott..



For some poeple, success is simply defined: it's the act of accomplishing something one has set to do. But finishing something isn't always the same as being succesful at it. For many, success also implies meaningfulness and magnitude. Almost every person has his or her own definition of success - and many of these definitions are anything but definite.


it is worthwhile to think about what success means to you and what it means to others. and it's up to you to decide if you want the latter to influence the former.

to me success is the ability to LOVE and to have COMPASSION. it's
the capacity to experience joy and spread it to others. It's the security
of knowing that your life has meaning and purpose. it is a sense of
connection to the creative power of the universe. it's also the ability to
fulfill your goals. it's the progressive realisation of worthy
goals. it's also the expansion of happiness. when you have all that,
then material success in terms of material acquisitions and comforts and luxury,
follows as a by-product.

--deepak chopra, writer, medical doctor, and CEO of the Chopra
Center

I'd rather be a failure at something i enjoy than be a success at something i hate..

--goerge burns, actor and comedian

Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. when you do a thing, do it with all your might. put your soul into it. stamp it with your own personality. be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful, and you will accomplish your objective. nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

--ralph waldo emerson, poet and philosopher

i thought i was going to make crazy cartoons for the rest of my life. i didn't think i'd ever get paid for it, didn't think i drew well enough, but i knew it made me happy.

--matt groening, creator of the simpsons

my boyfriend was moving to manchester and wanted me to move, too. it was during the train journey back from manchester to london, after a weekend looking for a flat, that harry potter made his appearance. i have never felt such a huge rush of excitement. i knew immediately that this was going to be such fun to write... i didnt know then that it was going to be a book for children - i just knew that i had this boy, harry. during that journey i also discovered ron, nearly headless nick, hagrid, and peeves. but with the idea of my life careering round my head, i didn't have a pen that worked! and i never went anywhere without a pen and notebook. so, rather than trying to write it, i had to think it. and i think that was a very good thing. i was besieged by a mass of detail and if it didn't survive that journey it probably wasn't worth remembering.

--joann kathleen (J.K.) rowling, writer

it [e-mail] was a hack - a neat thing to try out... it probably took four, five, six hours to do. less than a day spread over a week or two - when i had a spare moment.

--ray tomlinson, inventor of email, computer scientist

don't make friends who are comfortable to be with. make friends who will force you to lever yourself up.

--thomas j. watson, founder of IBM

there is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; ommitted, all the voyage of their life, is bound in shallows and in miseries, on such a full sea are we now afloat, and we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.

--william shakespeare, playwright, in julius ceasar

our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. there is no other route to success

--pablo picasso, artist

give me a stock clerk with a goal and i'll give you a man who will make history. give me a man with no goals and i'll give you a stock clerk.

--james cash penney, fonder of J.C. Penney

a man has to have goals - for a day, for a lifetime - and that was mine, to have people say, "there goes ted williams, the greatest hitter who ever lived."

--ted williams, baseball player

my goal is simple, it is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all..

--stephen hawking, physicist

consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do.

--pope john xxiii

goals are dreams with deadlines

--diana scharf hunt, aphorist