When I think of successful, who comes to mind? I guess I would need to sort of define success before I could determine who is successful. Let me think of some things that I think of when I think of the word success first. Here are a few things that come to mind.
- A successful person has to believe in themselves. To be successful, you need to believe that you can achieve the goal. This requires you to have or develop a level of self confidence in your own abilities.
- A successful person is able to achieve the desired result. People aim for different objectives, but a successful person has to have the ability and will power to push though and achieve their goal.
- A successful person is someone who has put in the work. Winning the lottery doesn’t make you a success. It might help spur you toward it, but to be successful, you have to accomplish something on your own.
- A successful person is someone who didn’t lie, steal, or bully his way to success. There is some degree of honor necessary. You can’t be truly successful if you have sold your soul to get there.
- A successful person has to have perseverance and patience. Some goals take a long time and you may fail many times and have to put yourself back on track. A successful person has to get back up and keep trying.
- A successful person has to have the nerve to take risks. There’s a luck factor involved in success. Fortunes were made merely by being in the right place, at the right time, and being prepared and willing to take on the job. Fortune favors the bold.
Based on this definition, I suspect there is no one who is perfectly successful. That being said, I do think a few famous people have achieved enough to be considered a success. I might not agree with what they accomplished, but I do admit they were successful at their objectives. Here are a few people I think might be considered relatively successful.
- Steve Jobs. He was very successful at starting and leading Apple to the height of it’s position in our society.
- Elon Musk. He managed to start and lead several successful companies, and is seen as a visionary by some of his fans.
- Bill Gates. I don’t always agree with him, but I believe he was very successful at getting Microsoft to it’s prominent role in our society.
- Steven King. He’s on my mind because I’m reading his book On Writing. I wouldn’t say he is my favorite author, but I believe he has been very successful.
Ken's Life 