Just When You Think You Know What SUCCESS Means

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I thought I knew what success meant. But did you know that in a linguistic sense, the word describes something entirely different to what we have always perceived it to be. The word belongs to a category of words called ‘nominalisations’ which describe an activity or a set of activities.

So according to the above, ’success’ does not exist at all. What does exist is a set of actions or activities leading up to a conclusion. And it is the conclusion that we determine to be ’successful’ or a ‘failure’. But because ’success’ does not exist, we are therefore all consigned to be ‘failures’ but because I do not recognise the word ‘failure’ we therefore shall remain captive to a set of activities aimed at a positive outcome!

Definitions of success on the Web:

1. an event that accomplishes its intended purpose; “let’s call heads a success and tails a failure”; “the election was a remarkable success for Republicans”
2. an attainment that is successful; “his success in the marathon was unexpected”; “his new play was a great success”
3. a state of prosperity or fame; “he is enjoying great success”; “he does not consider wealth synonymous with success”
4. achiever: a person with a record of successes; “his son would never be the achiever that his father was”; “only winners need apply”; “if you want to be a success you have to dress like a success”
Princeton

Continue 101 = Success : Switching Protocols 200 = Success : OK 201 = Success : Created 202 = Success : Accepted 203 = Success : Non-Authoritative Information 204 = Success : No Content 205 = Success : Reset Content 206 = Success : Partial Content 300 = Success : Multiple Choices 301 = Success : Moved Permanently 302 = Success : Found 303 = Success : See Other 304 = Success : Not Modified 305 = Success : Use Proxy 307 = Success :

Just When You Think You Know What SUCCESS Means

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2 comments ↓

#1 Boerseun on 09.26.06 at 4:52 pm

This is interesting.

Over the weekend my wife and I was talking about how different people see success. We know some people who are very wealthy, but do not sleep at night since their monetary success is something they can’t repeat anymore. What triggered our conversation was the reaction of another lady to the successful couples enormous house. We were thinking how this lady sees the couple as successful, but that there are someone else who can look at her and think she is successful, for totally different reasons. What it boils down to is what the measure of success is for each one. A big house, helping people, being famous, having a great family, or getting a 200 response from a web server. :-) I think that is why success can not exist, because how would you describe it to include all the different measures of it?

Good post!

#2 Rob on 09.26.06 at 4:56 pm

Op die kop Boerseun! Yup. Success means different things to different people. In a way its like looking at a holiday - is it the travel to or the arrival that is the best bit?

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