What is Success?
In one of my most popular articles, 30 Fundamentals of a Wonderful Life, I stressed the importance of forming your own definition of success. If you don’t, there is a good chance you will waste a lot of time and energy chasing someone else’s version of the word. To help you, I have found 10 quotes that each, in my opinion, give a key insight into what success really means.
Doing What You Love
Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer
Following Your Own Path
A successful life is one that is lived through understanding and pursuing one’s own path, not chasing after the dreams of others. - Chin-Ning Chu
Living Each Moment
Life is a succession of moments. To live each one is to succeed. - Corita Kent
Overcoming Obstacles
Success is not measured by what a man accomplishes, but by the opposition he has encountered and the courage with which he has maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds. - Charles Lindbergh
Treating People Well
Never lose sight of the fact that the most important yardstick of your success will be how you treat other people — your family, friends, and co-workers, and even strangers you meet along the way. - Barbara Bush
Excelling in Multiple Areas of Your Life
I believe that being successful means having a balance of success stories across the many areas of your life. You can’t truly be considered successful in your business life if your home life is in shambles. - Zig Ziglar
Doing Your Best
The man who has done his level best, and who is conscious that he has done his best, is a success, even though the world may write him down as a failure. - B.C. Forbes
Seeking and Finding Love
The person who tries to live alone will not succeed as a human being. His heart withers if it does not answer another heart. His mind shrinks away if he hears only the echoes of his own thoughts and finds no other inspiration. - Pearl S. Buck
Leaving the World a Better Place
What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal. - Albert Pike
Success is Many Things
To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded. - Bessie Stanley
What Does Success Mean to You?
I would love to know what success means to you. Does one of the above quotes hold a special significance to you? Have I missed any important ingredients in the potion of success?
So….. what is success? 
Photo by Thomas Hawk.
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27 Comments
October 9th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
Success to me is:
a) doing what makes you happy, all the time
b) having things to look forward to
c) learning to love (and to receive love)
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October 9th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
Success is…
1. Knowing who you are
2. Choosing who you are
3. Being who you are
In other words, success is “finding” (admitting to yourself is more accurate) who you really are, your core values and attributes, then consciously choosing which of those things you want to keep, which ones you want to alter or get rid of, and which things you want to add… and then letting that you that you chose shine through all of the time, every day, in everything that you do.
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October 9th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
Oh, and by the way, fantastic quote selection… I really like them.
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October 9th, 2007 at 8:05 pm
Peter - great selection of quotes. These are indeed words of encouragement
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October 9th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
Jason: thanks. You would be surprised how long it took to collect these quotes. There are a million and one about how to be successful, but to find quotes about what success is took some time….
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October 9th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
I define success in terms of happiness, much as Albert Schweitzer states in his quote. It matters less to me where I live, how much money I have in the bank, or how prestigious my job might be. Success/happiness is more about the people in my life, the relationships I’ve formed, and living my life with intent and purpose. If I can end my day and say that I spent energy (productive energy) on the things that truly matter to me, than I have succeeded.
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October 9th, 2007 at 10:28 pm
a deeper resaon, or no reason at all… both define success for me… an inner peace and inspiration… those are always consistent… happiness… good to have but can be a shallow reason…
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October 9th, 2007 at 11:33 pm
Great quotes Peter. Success to me is simply setting seemingly impossible goals, then reaching them.
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October 10th, 2007 at 1:21 am
“No one else is the authority on your potential, you’re the only person who decides how far you go, what you are capable of.” - Ben Saunders
Great post!
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October 10th, 2007 at 1:52 am
Great post. I appreciate your emphasizing that success isn’t always measured in terms of money and fame.
My favorites of the quotes are the Schweitzer one…I’ve used that one that one in Loving What You Do… and the last one, which I believe is by Ralph Waldo Emerson. I came across it years ago, and it was attributed to him.
I wrote about success in It’s a Magical World. I suppose for me it’s a combination of doing what you love, making a contribution to the world, and having the feeling that what you’re doing is what you’ve been put on life to do.
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October 10th, 2007 at 4:25 am
Thanks for the great comments everyone. With a few more comments tomorrow, I should easily be able to put together a post of your definitions next week.
Jean: I came across a few sites that attributed the quote to Ralph Emerson, but I also came across some that attributed it to Bessie Stanley (and made a point of noting that it is often wrongly attributed to Ralph Emerson).
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October 10th, 2007 at 5:54 am
I believe you are successful when you get paid for doing what you love.
Thank you for the article btw. It opened my eyes to other ways of seeing success. Ways I really needed actually.
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October 10th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
Excellent points… Success is something very personal and something within each of us. Everyone has success already, finding that feeling of success and celebrating it will help to move us toward what we truly desire.
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October 10th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
Hannes: my eyes were opened recently when I heard the term “time affluence”. It just clicked for some reason, and since then I have been thinking about what success really means. I’m sure power, prestige, and riches could fit quite nicely into a definition of success, but there are so many other ingredients to a successful life that are often forgotten….
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October 10th, 2007 at 1:20 pm
Great quotes. I subscribed to get updates in my inbox and this was a nice start. Success to me is setting goals and achieving them. Goals should be based off what is important to you and what you love. They can be small, short term goals, or lifelong ones. But success isn’t always based on accomplishments or business. It is also important to have inner peace and positive relationships. Learn all you can, love all you can, and be all you can. Then you will succeed.
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October 10th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
Success to me is:
learning foreign languages and one day when i come a certain level to be able to read an article or just chatting with natives
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October 10th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
Congratulations, Peter… you passed 1000 subscribers!
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October 10th, 2007 at 11:06 pm
I love the quote on following your own path. Those of us that march to the beat of a different drum get a lot of negativity from others - I just with the people in my life could realize that their dreams are not mine!
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October 11th, 2007 at 12:21 am
[...] I will change your life . com » Blog Archive » What is Success? (tags: success happiness life quotes) [...]
October 11th, 2007 at 4:15 am
Success is a peaceful night’s sleep, every night. Its all the things you did or chose not to do to “get there”. Success is nothing if it does not have my conscience’s seal of approval. Thanks for the great quotes.
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October 11th, 2007 at 11:49 am
Success to me is achieving inner peace of mind and heart by doing your best. Great Quotes!
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October 12th, 2007 at 8:56 am
About 3 weeks ago, I just wrote down my Mission Statement of my newsletter as follow
Be the person I want to be
Do what ever it takes, to
Have my desired life.
And Asking What does Success Means to You? I have been pondering this for quite sometimes and I met a speaker on Power of Law of Attraction, to appreciate and be grateful of what you have today and help others along your journey on the quest of success.
Interestingly, I also wrote on the Success is many things but the source I have, the person who said it is Ralph Waldo Emerson. Anyway,, it doesn’t matter who said it, important thing is how we achieve it.
SK
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October 16th, 2007 at 5:34 pm
I like Jennifer James’s quote, “Success is the quality of the journey”.
It’s all the unfolding moments strung together, many of which are under our control with the choices we make and how we perceive (attitude) the events unfolding.
Love your website.
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October 17th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
I just looked up Bessie Stanley in Wikipedia and apparently her version was:
“He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much;
Who has enjoyed the trust of pure women, the respect of intelligent men and the love of little children;
Who has filled his niche and accomplished his task;
Who has never lacked appreciation of Earth’s beauty or failed to express it;
Who has left the world better than he found it,
Whether an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul;
Who has always looked for the best in others and given them the best he had;
Whose life was an inspiration;
Whose memory a benediction. ”
So, I agree, it probably wasn’t Emerson, but it appears to be a modified version of Stanley’s. I like the revised version better. Anyway, thanks for the clarification.
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October 17th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
I’ve been poking around a bit more and the poem I just quoted (Bessie’s original) is inscribed on her tombstone. http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Phil.....uccess.htm has a link to a photograph of it. Interesting.
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October 17th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
Great detective work Jean! That was very interesting.
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February 10th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
[...] information that is commonly available, can turn out to be the most popular (see Left or Right?, What is Success? and The Paradoxical Commandments to see exactly what I [...]
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