Any true meaning of success can never be applied to all people. The structures, processes, and measures of success lie within the thoughts and minds of each and every person, and those structures, processes, and measures tend to evolve over time.

The tools of external evaluations of success can never be adequate resources when each individual's construct for setting goals, determining the methods that are used to meet the goal, getting past roadblocks, doing the work, and the quality of the end result are internal affairs. Even when a group of people worked together from the beginning, no two people have the same comprehension of the experience or ways of deciding whether the result was a true success.

Even the individual may not have a complete or permanent understanding, recall, or knowledge about the serendipity, luck, anonymous assistance, or exact sequence of events that affected the process of setting a goal. No one knows what hidden forces were at work during the gathering of resources needed to set and accomplish the goal. It may even take years beyond a person's lifetime for the accomplishment's value, or lack of value to be fully known. This is how the individual's idea of success can be incomplete or can evolve over time.

One person may use unethical means to achieve success, then celebrate their use of the unethical means as the way to do things in life. Another person may use unethical means and end up so ashamed, or under such punishment that there is no way to enjoy the success. A third person may quietly and anonymously make restitution for unethical acts and move on to consider their accomplishment a success.

The problem with trying to come up with a definition of true success is that the method for comparing can destroy a person's belief that they are successful.

There is the comparative method. When considering wealth, someone will ask the wealthy person if they are married. If the wealthy person is married, someone will ask if there are children. If there are children, someone will ask how the children are doing, or if there are grandchildren. If that does not humble a person, someone who is wealthier will come along and flaunt their wealthier wealth.

There is the method of determining if the world is a better place. At any given time after the successful development and implementation of any work of man, no one knows if the world will truly be a better place because of that work. Successful execution of decisions to manage the wildlife during the establishment of Yellowstone National Park resulted in the near extinction of some animals. Success in messing with one part of a fragile planet, it's ecosystem, or it's atmosphere can cause catastrophic failure in another. Success in developing new viruses gives us new viruses.

There is the internal method of setting a goal, accomplishing it, and evaluating the results. A paid assassin can be very successful and very happy with such success. A medical doctor can be happy that he has met his lifetime goal of successfully treating over five thousand patients, but feel so terrible about the thirty patients who died, that the success is not as enjoyable as he or she thought that it would be.

There is the internal method of setting a goal, attempting to accomplish it, failing, and being satisfied at having made the attempt.

In summary, there is no effective and comprehensive external method for generalizing the concept of "true success" to all, because each individual's judgment, along with the long term consequences of a person's accomplishments carry the burdens of determining "true success".

Learn more about this author, Elizabeth M. Young.
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