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Perspective

What is your vision of someone being successful?
Do you believe it generally measured by the acquisition of material things?

Unity 7 Aug 17
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21 comments

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6

Nada, that definition of success is everything that’s wrong with the world.....

I agree

6

"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 lived. This is to have succeeded."

[forbes.com]

Thank you sir

5

For me It's about your goals. If you wanna be a bum and succeed then your a success.

5

It's a wholly subjective matter.
Everyone is going to have a different opinion.

5

Success is relative. As a younger man I would have wanted everything I could get if I was not so stupid at the time. Today as a single older man I'm happy and successful living in my 2 bedroom mobile home parked on my half acre of ground in the small city I live in. I work and also have social security, have what I want and do what I want. I'm not a rich man but I have a low mortgage. If the car blew up I would simply go buy another one.

5

It certainly does not apply to me. Being single, independent, non-violent, living by secular Humanist values is what makes me "successful". Your mileage may vary.

3

I'll get back to you on that. As soon as I am succesful.....

Success is an almost day by day, project by project thing. I sure like money, the security it buys, not so much the material things. Quite simply buying whatever I want in the grocery store with no financial worries makes me happy

twill Level 7 Aug 18, 2021
3

To achieve the stated aim is success.

If the aim is to acquire material things and it's achieved then that is success.

Is there a problem with accomplishment resulting in a modestly comfortable lifestyle?

Should success necessarily be conflated with a debacle of dissolute debauchery?

In the afternoon.

The first world is guilty as charged.

Your first line is all that need be said on the subject. Well stated.

I will quote you if I may.

likewise

3

Noooo. Material things do not mean anything if you are unhappy, depressed or ill, however apparently there is a cut off point to how happy one is. After earning $75000 per annum people are not happier if they earn more.

3

No, I think success is more about relationships than achievements or material wealth, but my perspective is influenced by having more "success" at the former than the latter. It appears, from my experiences with online dating, that most women in my local dating pool, at least among the ones who are college-educated and professional class, that success is more about the latter than the former, and that they will only date men who are "successful" in the latter sense. Which is ironic, since all of them are divorced, and one would think that their top priority in trying again with another relationship would be someone with a good record in relationships, both with friends and significant others, but apparently the impressive resume is more important to them in who they choose for their next potential partner.

So, in my opinion, they get what they deserve, which, from what I hear, is usually another failed relationship.

3

Learning how to live without creating suffering for yourself or others.

skado Level 9 Aug 17, 2021
3

Happiness. have a roof and food....and happy? Works for me

Ditto

3

Success for me is being happy- having enough to get by, people who love you and people you love, the ability to do things you love- preferably for work, but at least the free time to do it if not.

To me, that sounds like not only a successful life, but also one with a healthy balance. The former is not possible, to me, without the latter.

3

Success is living a happy life.
You can be rich and miserable.
However most of us live quiet lives of desperation where we're not rich and we're still miserable.

You can be poor and miserable as well. 😉 if I’m gojng o be miserable, I’d rather do it while rich.

@Canndue "most of us live quiet lives of desperation where we're not rich and we're still miserable"

Thanks for mansplaining "You can be poor and miserable as well." after clearly not reading my post.

@Willow_Wisp you are welcome… but I was just stating an opinion , like you were.☮️

@Canndue I'm typically responding one on one to a poster when I comment on that persons comments. When stating my general opinion with no particular person in mind I make my own post to the original post, surely you see why.

2

We all measure how successful we are by comparing to others, even subconsciously. Could we ever stop doing that, I wonder? Self-fulfillment is probably the ultimate success and happiness for everyone.

Ryo1 Level 8 Aug 18, 2021

@TheMiddleWay I wish I could say the same, and believe you me, I do try, but I still find myself feeling better (or lesser) about myself by comparing my experience to others', and I do so subconsciously - that's hard to correct because I believe it's human nature. Isn't competitiveness a survival instinct? I'm not a very competitive person but if I said I have no competitiveness in me, I would be lying...

@TheMiddleWay..... dude...you are one smart dude, dude.

@TheMiddleWay ......lets call you "DR SAD SACK "

2

Just be who you are. Don’t be a conformist and don’t sacrifice your principles for any reason or for anyone. You are responsible for your own happiness, your own health and no one else. Others opinions are not your problem. You only live once, that’s it.

2

I once did. But, I came to realize it as something entirely different.

2

Success to me is measured by how overall one is content in life and if certain personal goals were met, and not necessarily the acquisition of material possessions. With that said, I imagine such a definition would vary from person to person, with some disagreeing with me on the materialism part.

1

I look around my home & property, almost finished after 47 years of hard work, and I am content.
After a very turbulent & painful beginning to my life, it is Exactly what I both want & need....i consider myself RICH.

1

To quote waitingforgodo below. "To achieve the stated aim is success."

But I think that it is true that there are some aims which are better than others. Therefore having better aims may be regarded itself as a form of success, which raises some successes above others.

At one end of the scale. If my aim is, to beat my wife without getting arrested, then if I can stop her phoning the police, I am successful. At the other end, if my aim is to help cure world hunger, and I succeed in finding a new crop that will grow in deserts, then I am successful.

Getting enough personal wealth to live a happy healthy life, is perhaps somewhere in the middle. But the big point about that is, that almost all studies made of the subject show that very little wealth is actually required for that. So that getting wealth beyond that, just for it own sake, and because I have not the thought and imagination to think of anything better to do with my limited time on earth, falls much further down the scale.

mr apple, sir ....... point of all important order here, sir. point of all important order. your tone is so often a delight of reason, your words are so often welcome. so imagine. how disturbing it was then, to see you placing before us here the proposition that "solving world hunger" is at the far extreme of all possible positive aims for sucess. much as i tire of tooting the same old horn (and i know those of you listening must all tire of hearing it), you leave me no choice but to restate once again carl sagan's central core message (seen in retrospect and presented by carl in mufti) and the central core message of the greatest film ever made, KOYAANISQUATSI. it is, in a nutshell , that humanity is a pesk on this planet, not just on itself but on all this planet's life, and is now threatening the viability of the biosphere for higher life forms. this has has been commonly noted often by authorities on itself. the 6th mass extinction is formally named after itself.

its "all hands on deck" time sir, round the clock, and in particular for hands like your own, and those other few and occasional non dimwits here. no casual lapses in judgement can be tolerated on this subject. with this all important cause before us, and now to state the onvious, to hell with feeding humanity. its time on an emergency basis to control its numbers, its genetic quality, and its senseless appitites. to coin a phrase made common by our long string of modern diversionary revolutions, from franz fanon, to sarte, to malcom x, and now lately by our least distinguiged subculture..... "BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY" .

that, to hopefully say the last word on this shoddy farrago of a topic, is the only sucess that matters at all. please, no more stale humanist homilies.

@holdenc98 Yes there is some truth in that, but as a stop gap until we manage to find humane ways to control our numbers, such as universal birth control, a lot of misery for one species at least will be eased. And do not forget that poor starving people often cause a lot of damage because of that. Even if rich westerners cause more.

PS. It is only a parable to make another point, you could put genocide in at number one if you like, or anything you think is the greatest good.

@Fernapple stopgap time has expired. control of their numbers is the prerequisite to "humane" anything. and regarding genocide, they, the "disposessed", are the ones who enlessly mouth "by whatever means nesessary" by which they mean violence against eletes.. feeding MUST be attached to numbers control, or its koyaanisquatsi. you know........... malthus? im sure you know that. theres got to be something else between genocide and head in sand. i aint wearin no black hat.

1

I once worked for a multi-billionaire and by the common yardstick of measurement he was very successful. However, most of the time he appeared thoroughly miserable and did not seem to enjoy what he had acquired.

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