Defining success: it's a measure of who you really are ...
Success. One word; with a hundred different ways to define it. Some measure it in terms of money: how much they take home every month or how much their business is worth at the end ...of the financial year. Others find it in the quality of life they have managed to create for themselves: how often they can take their kids on holiday, the kind of cars they drive, or even the size of the home they live in.
Some define it in the context of happiness, in how much pleasure they have managed to extract from everyday, humdrum living. And others see it in more intangible terms; in whether they have succeeded in living life on their own terms, and enjoyed themselves while doing so.
If your college mates are being courted by the best companies with six figure compensation packages, you won't be content with any less.
If you are surrounded by two-car households, then one car - no matter how fancy - won't feel like a totem of success.
Which is why I often feel for the friends of high achievers like Shah Rukh Khan.
No matter how hard they work, no matter how much money they make, no matter how high they clamber up the ladder of achievement, can they ever feel truly successful when they measure themselves against their superstar friend? I think not.
Unless, of course, they have mastered the art of contentment, the ability to be happy in their own skin and find pleasure in their own lives, no matter how ordinary.
And resist the temptation to judge themselves by the achievements of others. Now that, as far as I am concerned, is the true definition of success.
From HT Brunch, March 30.
Success. One word; with a hundred different ways to define it. Some measure it in terms of money: how much they take home every month or how much their business is worth at the end ...of the financial year. Others find it in the quality of life they have managed to create for themselves: how often they can take their kids on holiday, the kind of cars they drive, or even the size of the home they live in.
Some define it in the context of happiness, in how much pleasure they have managed to extract from everyday, humdrum living. And others see it in more intangible terms; in whether they have succeeded in living life on their own terms, and enjoyed themselves while doing so.
If your college mates are being courted by the best companies with six figure compensation packages, you won't be content with any less.
If you are surrounded by two-car households, then one car - no matter how fancy - won't feel like a totem of success.
Which is why I often feel for the friends of high achievers like Shah Rukh Khan.
No matter how hard they work, no matter how much money they make, no matter how high they clamber up the ladder of achievement, can they ever feel truly successful when they measure themselves against their superstar friend? I think not.
Unless, of course, they have mastered the art of contentment, the ability to be happy in their own skin and find pleasure in their own lives, no matter how ordinary.
And resist the temptation to judge themselves by the achievements of others. Now that, as far as I am concerned, is the true definition of success.
From HT Brunch, March 30.
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