What is a 'successful' person?

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Originally Posted by Brian Bean

He sighed and said " I don't mind doing things as long as I don't have to do them." The statement was more profound than her realised. So I would say the successful person is someone who has been able to arrange their life so that they do only what they want to do rather than what they have to.

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Originally Posted by LostPrincess13

I couldn't agree more.:D One is born to fulfill his personal destiny. Being successful is living life the way one wants to live it. The humble carpenter may be as successful (or even more) as the richest CEO if the carpenter considers building houses as his life's work and he's blissfully happy with it.

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I disagree. Even a carpenter has to manage daily tasks. He has to put thought on it. If it didn't give you work, it woudn't be work ... Unless you don't think about working. To work has to do with sweating, somewhere. My opinion, though. And it has to do with religious choice.

Speaking of an ancient culture, Romans thought so as well: work, business (negotium) was the opposite of free time (otium). They also had a verb which meant free time dedicated to a discipline (studeo, -es, -ere). So, for someone to be intelectual, back then, he needed to have free time, so as to use it. Nowadays, pleople seem to (be obliged to) make everything at the same time ...

Except successful people~
which doesn't mean they don't work

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Originally Posted by TheFifthElement

In the homework thread one of the issues that's cropped up is the question of what is it that makes a person a 'successful' person. How do we measure the value of a person's life? Is it even possible?

So, what say you Lit-net? What makes a person a 'successful' person?

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I think that WE do not measure the value of a person's life -- rather, the individual themself is responsible for their own evaluation. We, as outsiders, can view a person, and based on pure speculation, evaluate that 'that person is successful because they .... ' (measured in our own terms, not necessarily the person in question).

For example, someone who can play Chopin's Ballade No. 4 from memory is someone who would be deemed successful (in my terms). But my hubby would think that that was all in a day's work -- the individual practiced to attain that end. (I believe that too, to a degree, but I have been practicing that one for a few years now, and it is nowhere close to being memorized...) **sigh**

Which leads me to my own definition of 'success'. We have gained success when we feel that by the sweat of our brow, we have attained the goals that we have set for ourselves. We can thus be content and joyful knowing that we have reached for and obtained something in life that was important to us. Of course this would vary for any individual. But to be truly happy with the result of what we have set out to do, well, that is success in my humble opinion. ;)

I think it has to do with being happy with whatever you have to do, and pleased in not having fun all the time. Even for free time there's a limit. As well as there has to be a limit for work also! No man who works all the time can ever be happy! ... Balance is needed.