Of Success!

Sometime back, a friend of ours told us that a certain person we know remarked to him that we were not as successful as compared to X. When I heard this, I was furious. I had in one instant all the data and statistics to prove our success in my head. I had that remark in my head ringing for a long time and I was furious. What right did he have? I fumed!!. A few months later, the remark still lingered in my head but I was still upset when I gave it a second thought. A few more months later, I could reflect on it objectively and think. I thought long and hard and smiled at my own stupidity. I was happy also that the remark was made because, I now had a new perspective to our life!!

When I was a kid, the greatest achievement was when I topped my class - I called it success. Then, I was successful when I did well in school. I called myself successful, when I did fairly well in college, then, again when I got married to the one I love, then, buy a house of our dream, then, buy a car of our dream, then, have a kid that we love and travel that we enjoy. Each time, we reached a milestone, we felt successful. Whenever the success picture which we had, slowly, faded a new goal appeared at a distance and we worked towards it. Life is full of milestones and we are successful as long as we reach our milestones. We don't have to reach a milestone someone else places for us. It is not meant for us, it is meant for them!!!

Every time, we reached a milestone, we didn't call the person to announce our success, because it is a success for us, need not mean anything to anyone. We are as successful as we think we are. Sometime back, I had worked on something very hard, and it was well received by a small section of people. I was over the top. It was not a big deal. I had not made a million bucks but the happiness was there. Someone else can be forgiven for laughing at the success party I had because it may not mean anything to them. Yeah, success is when, we work on something and it makes us happy. Success is a success only when it manages to bring in the little curve in our lips else it is really not worth working towards it.

Many times, it amazes me about how, we spend recklessly without second thoughts for our kids or how when our parents spent such hard earned money on something we liked when they themselves wore a torn shoe to work - it made them happy and makes us happy and that to some is success and for others it is not. That doesn't make the first group unsuccessful. Unfortunately, today, success is only attributed to the success in career. Shah Rukh Khan is a success because he is no. 1 or Sachin is a success because he is no. 1 . Yeah, true. But, then, when, someone works hard and stops at one point and looks back on the path he has travelled, and is happy about some things then, he is already successful. We don't have to earn a million bucks or be the no.1 brand ambassador of the country. That doesn't make our life, it just fills our coffers. Filling coffers is not success but yeah, filling our heart with love is success. Yeah, when we struggle and reach a point and think we have not done well, then, hey, we shouldn't deny ourselves the pleasure of those small successes because they all come in small packages and it is for us to savour it for a longer time. Perhaps a small section of people does not think even Shah Rukh Khan is successful because he can't even quit smoking so what if he is the biggest star and everyone knows him! We all have our small bits of success, I think, it is our very own achievement which we should learn to be proud of and not seek endorsement from others for our endeavours. The sooner we learn this, the easier it is for us to lead our lives. As for our 'certain person' we just laughed it off. I mean, he had in no means any knowledge of what we had achieved in our lives. Perhaps he was looking at the wrong part in the big picture. He had to be forgiven for his mistake!