What is the secret of success? Or what is even success? Is it making money? Is it being well regarded by other people because of what you do? Is Barack Obama successful? Was George Bush successful? He became the President of America. Wow, isn't it? But he got laughed at. Is Barack Obama successful? Everyone loves him. As of now. But what if he does something wrong? He stops being successful?
Is a Pastor of a mega-church successful? DOes he never wake up one random morning, despite all the good things happening to him and his church, and feel like crap. Like everything inside him just got sucked out of him? Is he still successful?
I think that humans try and acheive the state of the other worldly, beyond humanity itself. Which I will call happiness. This happiness is not the same as eating an ice cream on a hot day. Nor is it like scoring big time with a hot girl. Nor is it the same as helping a person out with something, when you feel the warmth growing inside your heart.
This happiness is not the feeling that needs other people to tell you that you are indeed happy. You know you are happy. And that's just it. Even when you're completely honest about it to yourself, you still know you are happy.
I don't think anyone on earth can feel this sort of happiness. It is something that God is. Beyond human reach.
And to go back to my first question, is success comparable to happiness?
Happiness, however, the happiness reachable by humans, is the level of existence where you have enough food as you need, enough roof above your head, a family of loved ones.
Maslow's heirarchy of needs. The basic three. Nothing more, nothing less.
ANyway to end this on a comprehensible mode, even to myself, I think that success is an illusion. A lie. Unnecessary lie. Because humans will continue to fight for life and the right to live, even when there is no illusion like success. The will to live in people is strong. The idea of success makes this fight feel worse.
I think the capitalists invented the word success.
Ben Ning, Creative Practitioner