The definition of success

Author: Success can be defined simply as the ability to choose how to spend one’s life.

Critical Evaluation

 

The author’s view of success as the ability to choose how to spend one’s life is very generalist and not indicative of comprehensiveness of success as a philosophy and as a phenomenon. Success for some is relative while for others it is absolute. A person who views success as being better than the benchmark by a certain degree views it as a relative concept whereas people who view success as the achievement of a certain degree view it as an absolute concept. Both the views however take a view which is much larger and wider in scope than the author’s statement of success as the ability to choose how to spend one’s life.

Firstly success can not only be categorized in terms of one’s choice of his or her own life. Success for some is beyond the realms of choice that was not bestowed but rather forced upon them. These are the people who redefined success and created means beyond the choices their ability bestows them. A self obsessed dictator has all the ability and might to choose how to spend his life. But is he successful? He may consider himself to be successful, but the real success will not come from his own choice but from the choice he is able to bestow on others to enjoy the same ability to choose their respective lives. In my view a person who provides other with the same ability to choose their own lives is successful in the true sense.

Though the ability to choose one’s own life is the ultimate wish every individual, but I feel individuals with this ability may still be unsuccessful if they create an environment where others are not able to possess the same ability of choice.

 

I acknowledge that the definition of success put forward by the author is one aspect of defining success. But I feel there are a lot of other dimensions and extensions to success which can be defined not only with one’s own ability to choose but with influencing other people choices and abilities. It was not Mahatma Gandhi’s own commitment to non violence that can be termed as the basis for his success. But it was his ability to influence others to commit and follow the same principles that define his success.