Epiphany no. 1 – To Get It You Have to Name It

What is success? What does it mean?

SUCCESS – SUCCESS - SUCCESS

Everybody wants it. Why? What is it?

These questions bounced in my head more and more. I know there are lots of books about success out there. I even read some of them but I also want to find my own words to define it. I think that I came to a point where it started to make more sense to me. And as I started to put the pieces of the puzzle together I even found these definitions that described some of my own conclusions as well:

# S: (n) success (an event that accomplishes its intended purpose) "let's call heads a success and tails a failure"; "the election was a remarkable success for the Whigs"

# S: (n) success (an attainment that is successful) "his success in the marathon was unexpected"; "his new play was a great success"

# S: (n) success (a state of prosperity or fame) "he is enjoying great success"; "he does not consider wealth synonymous with success"

# S: (n) achiever, winner, success, succeeder (a person with a record of successes) "his son would never be the achiever that his father was"; "only winners need apply"; "if you want to be a success you have to dress like a success"

(source: http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=success)

So it seems to be like this:

Success is a concept with two components. One of the components is absolute, is a constant. Success is accomplishment. Success is always that. The other component is relative. It is the content of the accomplishment. It is what you accomplish. This is very changeable and it can differ from person to person (when we use an internal frame of reference) and from culture to culture (when we use an internal frame of reference)

So what was my epiphany after understanding all this?

It’s simple, almost trivial – if you want to be successful you need to describe what you want to be successful with. To get it you have to name it first!