by Bob Trowbridge

Created on: April 06, 2008

There are really only two measures of success. The most prevalent in most lives is an external measure, the meaning of success as it is understood by the culture as a whole as well as by those closest to us. Often these measures are very similar if not exactly the same.

The second measure of success is that which comes from within. It is our personal meaning or truth about success. Each of us will decide, by our actions, whether we will be guided by society's meaning of success or by our own. To be the sole judge of your own success or lack of it takes a tremendous amount of courage and character.

The option, however, is to be the victim of our own culture and to let others decide what success and failure mean. In the U.S. and other industrialized nations, we are born into a certain model of success. It is very difficult, when this model is impressed upon us nearly at birth, to be able to live by a different model.

For the most part, success in our culture relates primarily to three things. The first is our position, our career or job. Certain careers have a greater weight of success than others. It would be possible to do a chart and rate jobs and careers as to their success quotient. Related to this is the second measure of success and that is income or wealth. The careers highest on the success chart are also most likely to lead to the highest incomes, but not always.

More about these later. The third measure of success relates to family. Do you have a beautiful or handsome spouse? Do you have attractive, well-behaved, and brilliant children? It helps if they are athletic as well. This is probably the least important level of success. One can be forgiven a less than perfect family life if he or she is successful career- and money-wise.

Some careers are higher up on the success chart even though they may be lower on the income chart. For example, doctors tend to be high on the success chart, especially neurosurgeons. As one neurosurgeon said in my hearing, "Neurosurgeons are the crme de la crme." I don't know about that, but they are high on the success chart based on an assumption of intelligence and skill, much like the proverbial rocket scientist.

On the other hand, the president or CEO of a large corporation will make a lot more money than your average neurosurgeon but will probably have less respect than a surgeon. Lawyers can make tons of money as well but are less respected than many other careers.

Some careers may provide relatively low salaries but are

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